“I’ve always been very competitive with Chris,” Tim said. “The difference was that in high school we had always been on the same team, and I wanted a chance to step outside of his shadow and go somewhere else and compete against him instead.”

Most recently, Chris, Tim, and Sean were reunited at the Dartmouth, Cornell, Harvard tri-meet. While they didn’t swim in the same heats individually, one of the freestyle relays pitted Chris against Tim, with both brothers swimming anchor in the 4x100 free relay. The Crimson finish first in the event, and the Big Red team finished in third.

“I think I’m more just proud to share that experience with him,” Chris said. “We finished and we were in lanes next to each other, and even though we won it wasn’t a personal victory and I don’t think he felt slighted at all… All the fans watching and the teams know that there are three brothers swimming at the same meet, which is pretty cool.”

Both Satterthwaite parents traveled from Minnesota to watch their sons compete.

“It was basically the one meet where we could guarantee both my younger brother and older brother would be there,” Tim said. “It was fun to cheer for them, and a lot of guys on the Cornell team have met both my brothers so they would cheer for them as well. Though they were our competitors it was still fun to watch someone you know do well.”

For the Satterthwaites, swimming isn’t a measure of how one brother is better than another. Rather, their love for the sport has tied them to each other and to Ivy League swimming.

“When we were younger I always wanted to be doing what [Chris and Tim] were doing,” Sean said. “If they hadn’t stuck with swimming, I’m not sure if I would have either.”

—Staff writer Emily T. Wang can be reached at emilywang@college.harvard.