The saying goes that to be the best, you have to beat the best. This week, the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team got the chance to prove the adage true. Competing in two meets, the Crimson faced some of the nation’s top programs and took a step towards its perpetual goal of establishing itself as a powerhouse team.

Harvard (3-0, 3-0 Ivy) split up its squad, sending its swimmers to the Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas and its divers to the Georgia Diving Invitational in Athens, Ga. Each meet featured four nationally-ranked teams. No. 5 Texas, No. 17 USC, No. 19 Stanford, and No. 24 Arizona competed at the Texas Invitational, while the Crimson squared off against No. 6 California, No. 10 Michigan, No. 13 Georgia, and No. 17 Auburn in Georgia.

Despite the high caliber of the competition, Harvard managed to hold its own, posting a number of top-10 finishes in the competitive field.

The Crimson’s efforts were led by freshman Dean Farris, who continued his impressive debut season with a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle. The Harvard rookie touched the wall less than a second behind Texas sophomore Townley Haas, who won the event. Haas competed at the 2016 Olympics and was a gold medalist in Rio in the 200 freestyle relay.

Farris’ time of 1:34.3 broke the Crimson program record in the event.

“Dean has been swimming really well so it was nice to see him go that fast this early in the season,” sophomore Brennan Novak said. “Breaking one of the oldest team records as a freshman is really impressive, so we're all excited to see how fast he will go at the end of the year.”

The freshman also contributed to another top-10 finish for Harvard in the 800 freestyle relay. Farris teamed up with fellow freshman Zach Snyder, senior Aly Abdel Khalik, and Novak to take eighth in the event.

The Crimson’s relay lineups produced strong results throughout the meet, including a 10th-place mark in the 200 freestyle relay. Farris, senior Max Yakubovich, junior Steven Tan, and sophomore Sebastian Lutz made up the Harvard A squad for the event.

Farris and Yakubovich also teamed up for the 400 medley relay, racing with juniors Koya Osada and Shane McNamara for a 12th-place result. In addition, senior Jack Manchester, sophomore Grant Goddard, and co-captains Mitchell Foster and Eric Ronda came in 15th in the 200 medley relay.

Manchester, Farris, Lutz, and Tan also swam together in the 400 freestyle relay and came up with an 11th place finish.

Farris would chip in two more solo top-15 finishes as well, coming in 13th in the 50 freestyle and 11th in the 100 backstroke. His times in both events met the NCAA ‘B’ cut standard.

Not to be outdone by their freshman teammate, Ronda and Manchester both qualified for A finals on the last day of the meet. Manchester ended up 7th in the 200 back with a ‘B’ cut time of 1:44.0. Meanwhile, Ronda secured sixth place in the top final of the 200 breast.

McNamara also finished 10th in the 100 breast, with Ronda two places behind him. Earlier in the meet, Osada and Chang had a similarly close race in the 200 IM. Osada took 14th place and Chang was less than a second off of his teammate in 15th. The result was mirrored in the 400 IM, as senior Christian Carbone outpaced Snyder by three seconds for 14th and 15th, respectively.

The Crimson finished the meet in impressive form, picking up its final top-10 finish of the weekend on the last day in the 1650 freestyle, as sophomore Logan Houck touched the wall in 10th. The Las Vegas, Nev. native took sixth place in the same event at the 2016 Olympic Trials.

Farris collected an 18th-place finish in the 100 free, and Carbone and senior Sava Turcanu ended up 14th and 18th in the 200 fly to close out the meet for Harvard.

The Crimson’s divers had an equally strong showing at the Georgia Diving Invitational. On the first day, all three Harvard athletes qualified for the final of the one-meter dive, and junior Bobby Ross took 10th place, with junior David Pfeifer and freshman Austin Fields rounding out the field for the Crimson in 14th and 15th, respectively.

The next day it would be Pfeifer’s turn to crack the top 10 in the three-meter event. The junior took seventh place, a result that qualifies him for the NCAA zone championships later this year. Ross nearly matched his mark from the previous day, taking 11th in the three-meter, while Fields ended up in 14th.

“Diving against nationally-ranked programs helps you identify more things to improve on,” Ross said. “It's easy to get stuck in the ivy league bubble where you see the same divers over and over again. When you're complacent with your diving, that's when you stop improving.”

—Staff writer Sam O.M. Christenfeld can be reached at schristenfeld@college.harvard.edu.