The Harvard men's swimming team is keeping its eyes on the prize.

With a 7-2 record, the Crimson travels down to Princeton, N.J. this weekend as the favorite to win the Eastern Championships.

While Princeton and Yale traditionally set their sights on the Ivy Crown, the Easterns, held this year at Princeton's DeNunzio Pool from March 8-10, have always been the focus for the Crimson.

The coaches and players all agree that this tournament is what the season is all about.

"This fall and winter we've done a huge amount of work and we didn't rest a whole lot," Assistant Coach Matt Kredich said. "It has been the hardest training some of these swimmers have had in their background. We've been resting for the last six weeks. As the body begins to recover more every week, we can map out the swimmer's progress. We've worked really hard and rested really hard."

"We've focused our entire season on this meet," Co-Captain Tom Peterson said. "The last month we've been tapering yardage and preparing to shave. We will shave Saturday night."

Shaving, which increases a swimmer's speed in the water, will not be the Crimson's only advantage in this 52nd annual Easterns competition.

"No other team has the depth we have," Kredich added. "We have 17 swimmers considered for the NCAAs. No other team has half that many."

"We're all hoping to win and show the rest of the league what we're capable of doing," Co-Captain Chris Kovacs said. "Our divers, backstroke, distance freestyle and butterfly swimmers are really strong."

Regardless of the strength and depth of the Crimson team, it still must contend with the mighty Princeton Tigers, who edged Harvard for first place at last year's Easterns and claimed first place in the annual dual meet between the two teams this year with a 124-117 victory at Blodgett Pool.

Yale, which defeated the Crimson 143.5-94.5 two weeks ago, also stands in Harvard's way.

"Every school has a couple of swimmers who will race for the top five positions in every event," Kredich said. "The question is which teams will give the best performance. Princeton and Yale peaked against us a few weeks ago. It will be interesting to see if they can be ready now."

The Master Plan

Harvard, however, has a definitive plan to capture the championship.

"The very first event of the meet, the 500-yard freestyle, usually goes the strongest," Kredich said. "What we're trying to do is put as many swimmers in the top eight of every event for finals as possible. I think that will send a warning to the rest of the teams and establish the tone for the big event."

"Our strategy is to swim fast in the morning and use our adrenaline to load up for finals where we can swim even faster," Peterson said.