It's hard to keep a good team down.
Despite having to race in four meets in the last six days, the Harvard women's swimming team rolled to a decisive 178-108 victory over Ivy rival Dartmouth last night at Blodgett Pool. The victory ends the 1995 portion of the Crimson's season, leaving them with an impressive 5-1 overall record and a 3-0 standing in the Ivy League.
The Big Green was never really able to get into the swing of things against the Crimson. Harvard was dominant in the meet, winning every non-exhibition event.
"The team did a great job," Harvard coach Maura Costin Scalise said. "The races went really well. It's impressive for a coach to watch when the team gets ahead and performs well."
Especially notable in the victory was the Crimson's performance in the 1000-yard freestyle event, in which sophomore Jen Steffen and junior Katie Liu finished 1-2, with times (10:33.51 and 10:35.16 respectively) that would place them among the top ten in the league.
Sophomore Keiko Iwahara was also in top form, finishing first in both the 50 and 100 freestyle events. Junior Kara Miller won both the one-meter and three-meter springboard, making a clean sweep of the diving portion of the competition.
"We've been coming off a bunch of meets this week," Steffen said. "We held together physically and mentally."
Harvard's easy victory was even more impressive in light of the fact that many Crimson swimmers were competing in "off-events," events which are not their specialty. Costin Scalise was using this meet to look for good swimmers in off-events to add to the team's depth.
"We found some new events for some people," Costin Scalise said. "We're looking ahead to swimming against Princeton and Yale."
The squad won't have to look too far ahead. The team's next meet will be January 12 against Yale in New Haven.
It will use its month off for intensive training in preparation for the Yale meet, which has heavy Ivy title implications. The Crimson shared last year's title with Yale and Princeton, and they are still the teams to beat this year.
"So far we've proven that we have the talent to beat Yale," junior Jenny Swarsen said. "We have an amazing depth of quality. We're all really excited for the rest of the season."
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