W. Swimming Has Chance For Redemption at Ivy Meet

This weekend's Ivy League Championship Meet at Princeton will be the final regular season competition for the Harvard women's swimming and diving team.

It will also be Harvard's biggest test in several years.

The Crimson's season so far has left more than a few questions still unanswered. Is the Crimson still at the top of the conference? Has the winning tradition of Harvard women's swimming and diving reached an end?

Under Head Coach Stephanie Wriede-Morawksi '92, Harvard is focused exclusively on the Ivies as the one meet where the team can reclaim its position among the best in the Ivy League.

However, the challenge this year is even greater than previously imagined.

Harvard dropped four of its seven dual meets this season, and lost to Pennsylvania for the first time ever last December. Swimmers from Brown, Princeton, and Yale have already posted times this season that outclass the Crimson, and are even faster than Harvard's school records.

Still, the Crimson's fire has just been ignited, and Harvard will have to hope its competitors fastest swims are behind them.

The Crimson's travel squad has gone untapered and unshaved the entire season, whereas Ivy foes Princeton and Brown shaved and rested for their dual meet against each other in December. Yale and Penn also shaved for their dual meets with Harvard earlier this year.

The ascent to the top of the conference meet standings will require personal best times from every Crimson competitor and an elevated performance by the divers.

"We have a team goal of getting first or second and qualifying people for the NCAAs," captain Pia Chock said. "The only way we're going to accomplish this is by winning relays and outscoring Princeton and Brown in the finals."

Such a performance requires the Crimson to come out fighting in this morning's preliminaries and to perform with the highest level of intensity at each of the meet's six sessions.

The Crimson has done its best in meets when it gets the ball rolling early. If Brown and Princeton start out swimming faster and diving better, there is a slim chance the Crimson will recover.

It is going to take stand-out, team record-breaking performances on the first and second days of competition to set the Crimson up for a successful weekend.

The team will turn to captain Pia Chock, especially in the relays, for success.

"We're going to need high morale and lots of positive energy," Chock said. "This is my last meet in which I'll compete with my whole team and I want to make the most of it."

Chock will also contribute with her speed in the butterfly events and her consistent wins in the 200 freestyle.

Joining Chock in the relays will be the runner-up in the 100-yard butterfly at last year's Ivy championships, sophomore Anna Fraser.

"It's going to be a fast event, but I'm so confident because I swam best unshaved times this season," Fraser said. "I've got nothing to lose."

Fraser has just returned to the water after two months out following shoulder surgery. Junior Janna McDougall will also be a key performer for Harvard.

It is unclear what McDougall will swim because she is extremely versatile and can perform well in any number of events. It is expected she will contest the 50 and 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke.

Freshman upstart Erica DeBenedetto may prove to be the Crimson's secret weapon at Princeton.

The senior national-qualifying breaststroker, who has a history of stepping up her form and intimidating the competition at high-pressure events, will be the key player in the Crimson's bid at victory in both medley events. DeBenedetto's personal best times place her at the top of the Ivy standings in the individual breaststroke events.

"The relays are going to be awesome," DeBenedetto said. "It's going to be exciting and I know we'll give our competitors a run for their money."

A strong contingent of Crimson swimmers will attempt to reach the finals in all three events to keep pace with Chock's team goal.

Sophomore Jessi Walter will look to shatter team records in both

backstroke events, as she attempts to qualify for her first Ivy Championship finals.

Olympic trialist Katie Wilbur will run down the field in her attempt to win the 400-individual medley, and other Crimson standouts like Lillian Brown, Vicki Chang, and Abbie Davies will surely be hunting down the Bears and Tigers in the medleys and freestyle events.

On the boards, the Crimson will place its hopes in 1999 NCAA qualifier and Ivy finalist Camilla McLean. Having had the most consistent season of the Harvard divers, her experience will be crucial when the heat is on in the Tiger Den.

Captain Ali Shiply, who will be competing on both boards for the first time all year due to injury, and freshman Rene Paradise also have the ability to final and level out the scores against Princeton's fierce diving squad.

If the Crimson fails to accomplish what it is setting out to do in New Jersey, the results may indicate a huge flaw in the structure of a Harvard athletic program that has only known success.

If Wriede-Morawski's squad pulls through with an outstanding performance, the result will hush the critics and prove the Crimson had the situation under control all along.