Although he would perform better later in the season, the result would not be as sweet against the NCAA’s more difficult competition. Despite shaving eight seconds from his time, Cole took seventh at NCAAs, down five spots from his second-place finish the previous year.

Complementing the attack between the lanes, junior Enrique Roy dominated on the boards, cleaning up throughout the year and sweeping the diving events at the EISL Championship.

Normally the Crimson’s failure to win any of the high-value relay events would have sunk attempts to reclaim the league title, but Roy’s sweep on the boards negated Princeton’s advantage in that category and allowed Harvard to emerge victorious.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.

By TIMOTHY J. McGINN

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

For the Harvard men’s swimming team, the year between the 2002 Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) Championship and the 2003 meet was a period of dynastic crisis.

Princeton’s victory in the 2002 season’s final league event was the Tigers’ first since 1996, snapping a streak of six consecutive Crimson victories and putting to end an era in which Harvard emerged on top nine times out of 10.

“We had won our freshman and sophomore years, so I think I, at least, and probably others, just took it for granted that we would win every year,” senior Andrew McConnell said. “Princeton showed us it was not going to be easy last year.”

The aberration proved to be more than a small hiccup in the Crimson’s period of dominance as the situation for Harvard was no better at the 2003 H-Y-P meet.

At the beginning of the dual season, the Crimson coasted to victory after victory, casting aside competition with relative ease, bolstering its record and preparing for the late-season push.

But Harvard had faced no squad of Princeton’s caliber.

In the first test of the season for the Crimson, featuring the two preeminent eastern powers competing head-to-head, the Tigers eked out a five-point victory, winning on the final relay event and casting significant doubt on Harvard’s ability to return to the pinnacle of the EISL.

“We were definitely disappointed to have lost by such a narrow margin,” senior Mike Gentilucci said. “But the loss at H-Y-P only strengthened our conviction to come back and win conferences.”