Harvard Handles Yale, Falls to Princeton

The Harvard women’s swimming and diving team finished its Ivy dual season with an impressive 6-1 record after the annual HYP meet on Saturday. The Crimson (6-1, 6-1 Ivy) defeated Yale (6-3, 4-2), 180-120, but suffered a loss against conference rival Princeton (6-0, 6-0), 196-102 at DeNunzio Pool in Princeton, N.J.

“The meet in Princeton was the first time all year that we’ve come against a challenge,” Harvard coach Stephanie Morawski said. “We’ve skated through the invitational swimming very well, but Princeton caught us by surprise.”

The team was led by junior Jenny Reese, who won both the one- and three-meter diving events in the meet.

“[Jenny] did extremely well this weekend,” Morawski said. “We have always had depth in diving, but rarely a frontrunner. She has worked so hard and is a leader on a young squad.”

Reese was forced to sit out much of last season due a knee injury, but based on her performance in this weekend’s competition, she’s making up for lost time.

“She is really stepping up and following her words with action,” Morawski continued. “It’s a real sign of how much talent she has and what she is capable of doing to come back this season and perform like this.”

Reese won the three-meter event by nearly 20 points, while she edged out Yale’s Paige Meneses by just 1.2 points on the lower board. Sophomore Leslie Rea placed fourth on the three-meter and sixth on the one-meter.

Also contributing strong performances for the Crimson were freshmen Ellie Johnson and Kelly Robinson and juniors Katy Hinkle and Ali Slack, who made up the 400-yard freestyle relay team that took first in its event. The foursome finished with a time of 3:28.35 to edge out its Bulldog competitors by just under three seconds.

Princeton’s top team would have won the race in 3:25.87, but with the meet’s results already decided, the Tigers swam the relay as an exhibition.

“We fought really hard this weekend,” Robinson said. “The meet bodes well for our chances at the championships...and showed how strong we are as a team.”

Aside from her victory in the relay, Robinson also posted two runner-up finishes in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly with times of 23.81 seconds and 55.25 seconds, respectively.

Further place-holders were co-captain Alexandra Clarke, who finished third in the 1000-yard freestyle, junior Chrisine Kaufmann, who placed second in the 500-yard freestyle, and sophomore Meghan Leddy, who was runner up in the 200-yard backstroke.

Another standout for the Harvard squad was junior Kate Mills, who had three top-three finishes in the 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, and 200-yard individual medley.

Mills’ 1:58.76 in the butterfly was good enough for third place and an NCAA “B” cut .

“We have a very, very deep team, and it really came out this weekend,” Mills said. “Once we get together and are fully rested, there really will be no stopping us.”

The Tigers were propelled by co-captain Alicia Aemisseger, a 10-time All-American. Individually, Aemisseger took the 200-yard butterfly in pool-record time and won the 1000-yard freestyle in 9:37.27—18 seconds ahead of runner-up Aislinn Smalling.

Aemissiger also touched the wall first in the 500-yard freestyle, besting runner-up Kaufmann by almost 14 seconds.

Princeton is now in position to claim its fourth-straight dual-meet title if it can hold off Columbia on Friday. The Crimson will have another opportunity to compete against the Tigers at the Ivy League Championships in late February, when it hopes to repeat last year’s victory.

“This weekend, we learned what we need to work on over the next month towards the championship,” Slack said. “The straight wins we had brought us together, but the loss has truthfully motivated us even more for the end of the season.”

For Morawski, the final meet against Princeton will not only be a test of her team’s skill, but also of its character.

“Princeton is certainly going to be swimming off a huge confidence booster,” Morawski said. “It shows your character and how tough you are to dust yourself off, come back, and fight for a win.”

“Our focus now is finishing the season with an Ivy championship,” Robinson echoed. “We have dominated in all our other meets, so I think the rest of our season is in the bag.”

—Staff writer B. Marjorie Gullick can be reached at gullick@college.harvard.edu.