Among the Crimson’s accomplishments over the years was last year’s Ivy title—one Harvard will defend back in Blodgett in late February. The Crimson can only hope its next trip goes as well as this one did.
Junior Kate Mills won the 200-yard freestyle and the 400-yard individual medley, while classmates Holly Furman and Christine Kaufmann and sophomore Meghan Leddy also claimed individual victories.
The Crimson swept the diving events as well, as junior Jenny Reese won the three-meter dive and sophomore Leslie Rea led a top-four sweep on the one-meter board.
But Saturday’s meet was likely the last of Harvard’s drama-free victories. The pressure will increase exponentially in the coming weeks as Harvard takes on Yale and Princeton at the Tigers’ DeNunzio Pool. Like the Crimson, Princeton is undefeated, and Yale just surrendered a four-meet winning streak to Navy on Saturday. It was with these races in mind that Morawski decided to mix up the lineup.
“Our plan was to go in there with a little bit of an off lineup and try to have some really good races,” she said.
By switching people around, Morawski sought to increase the competiveness of the races, forcing her swimmers to pay more attention to detail.
“We were making sure people were doing the little things rights: don’t breathe from the flags, fire it in the wall,” Morawski said. “It was an opportunity for us to focus on technical details. Against Princeton and Yale, we’ll be able to not worry about little things—hopefully those will be automatic.”
—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu