Women's Swimming Ties for Ivy Lead, but Falls to Third at Easterns

Going into the 1995-'96 season, it was difficult to know what to expect of the Harvard women's swimming team.

After all, the squad was pretty different from the team that narrowly lost to Princeton at the Eastern Championships last year. Gone was Deborah Kory, holder of two Harvard records and fifth-place finisher at the 1995 Easterns. Also lost were freestylers Greta Steffenson, Valerie Gilson and Kristan Gately, all of whom placed at Easterns.

So it was pretty obvious that this season would be a turnover year, one that saw a new class of swimmers take over from the old.

It was well-known that Harvard had a truckload of talented sophomores--Keiko Iwahara, Jennifer Steffen and Sandie Stringfellow, to name a few--and strong senior leadership in the form of Carrie Miller and co-captains Laura Koerckel and Sarah Durkin. The only question was, could it all be put together?

Almost. Harvard had a strong regular season, going 8-2 and 6-1 in the Ivy League, but could only muster a third-place finish at Easterns.

That tournament--which faces all eight Ivy teams, Army and Navy against each other--was won by host Brown, a team Harvard defeated in November by a 160-140 score. Yale, the only Ivy team to beat Harvard, finished second.

Leading the way for the Crimson was Miller, a specialist in the butterfly and individual medley. She scored 46 points at Easterns, good enough to tie for seventh place along with Brown's Christine Jensen.

In addition, Steffen swam her way to 14th with 40.5 points, Iwahara won the 50-yard freestyle, and junior Kara Miller won the 1-meter dive and placed third in the 3-meter.

In the regular season, the Crimson had five impressive meets before winter break. Besides the win over Brown, Harvard defeated Virginia, 127-115, in the Harvard Invitational. Even though the Crimson also lost to Florida in the triangular, 175-66, the victory over the Cavaliers was a definite accomplishment.

But in its only January meet, Harvard fell to Yale by a pretty wide margin, 172-128, about a week before exams. Three straight Ivy victories helped ease that sting (over Princeton, Penn and Cornell), and then came Easterns.

Kara Miller's performance at Easterns was good enough for her to qualify for the NCAA Championships at Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the 1m dive, Miller came in 27th, and in the 3m she placed 26th. In both events, she was the top Ivy finisher.

Harvard Sports Stats 1995-96

Women's Swimming

Record: 8-2, 6-1 Ivy

Ivy Finish: First (tie)

Head Coach: Costin Scalise

Captains: Sarah Durkin '96, Laura Koerkel '96

Other Key Players: Carrie Miller '96, Keiko Iwahara '98, Kara Miller '97, Jennifer Steffen '98, Sandie Stringfellow '98