Villanova also is bringing freshman stars to the contest, with Tom Tracy in the backstroke and the fly, Mike Melley in the freestyle, and Bryan Blitzer in the sprint freestyle.

The Women

The women are also looking to use this race to gauge their competition and see how their training is going.

"We want to race well, but we want to see where we are as a whole," co-captain Kristen Gately said.

The women are counting on strong performances from co-captain Deborah Kory in the breaststroke and individual medley and on Caroline Miller in the butterfly and IM. They also have high hopes for freshman backstroker Kathy Liu and sophomore distance swimmer Gretta Steffenson.

Harvard's depth is particularly advantageous, given the format of the tournament. The top eight finishers in the preliminary races will race in the evening finals, and the ninth through the 16th finishers in the pre-liminaries will race in the evening consolations.

The competition the Harvard women will face will also be formidable.

"It's going to be a fast meet," co-captain Sabrina Corlette said.

The women would like to get a measure of revenge on Yale, to whom they lost a close duals match last spring. Still, Yale, bringing by far the largest team to the meet (36 swimmers to Harvard's 24), has lots of depth in all areas and will be no pushover.

"This tournament will be a good indicator of how the Yale duals [in January] will go," Corlette said.

Villanova comes to the tournament with a reputation for being one of the fastest teams in the East. It finished in the top 25 at the NCAA tournament last year, and remain a speedy foe.

Indiana, the team making the longest trek to Cambridge, has the advantage of coming into the tournament well-rested. In addition, they are coached by former Harvard assistant coach Nancy Nitardy.

Corlette regards the race as an opportunity for team bonding. "We'll relax, enjoy ourselves, and get out there and race."