Lessening the pressure on the pair is freshman Jane Evans, who has already made her mark in this young season.

Victorious in both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events in the Cornell-Dartmouth tri-meet, Evans has shown that she is capable of making an impact from the onset.

“She doesn’t let anything bother her, and she just races,” Brethauer said. “You always know she’s going to have a real strong performance.”

Fraser will lead the Crimson butterfly effort after raising the bar in last year’s Ivies. In addition to her new records in the 200-yard free relay and the 400-yard medley relay—in which she swam the butterfly leg—Fraser also set the 100-yard fly Harvard record en route to the title.

Now completely healthy after a year initially dampened by injury, she will be a force to be reckoned with.

Like Fraser, Brethauer returns to the water this season after a record-setting 2002 campaign. She became the new record holder in the 200-yard backstroke en route to the Ivy title.

This year, she has picked up right where she left off, winning the 100-yard backstroke last weekend.

On the boards and platforms, the trio of junior Renee Paradise and sophomores Anne Osmun and Coral Day-Davis have excelled despite their youth.

Though the Crimson has already begun the year in fine fashion with its typical rout of traditional Ivy bottom-dwellers Cornell and Dartmouth, the season begins in earnest on Friday as Harvard travels to Brown. The Bears, who topped the Crimson in dual meets and the Ivies, will be the first real test of the season.

“We definitely have a real shot [at displacing either Princeton or Brown] this year,” Brethauer said. “It’s not going to be easy, but we have a shot.”