Crimson Rolls to Another Dual-Meet Win

The domination of the Harvard women’s swimming and diving team over its competition is safe for another week.

The Crimson (4-0, 4-0 Ivy) logged another win on Friday, beating Columbia (1-1, 1-1) 159-84 in New York. With the victory Harvard extends its winning streak to 14 straight dual wins.

“We did not exactly swim our top line,” co-captain Joanna Lee said. “We were still expecting to come through strong, though.”

The Crimson was able to win 11 of the 13 events in which it competed. Harvard swam the 14th event of the meet, the 400-yard individual medley, as an exhibition.

Sophomores Lindsay Hart and Jackie Pangilinan, junior Emily Wilson, and senior Noelle Bassi each swam a leg of the opening relay to take the first win of the meet in the 400-yard medley relay.

“We just went in ready to go,” junior co-captain Jessica Davidson said. “We wanted to try our hardest and not look back.”

Hart went on to lead a 1-2-3-4 finish in the 200-yard individual medley. Pangilinan finished in second place almost three seconds later. Davidson and freshman Kelly Mooney rounded out the event finishing third and fourth respectively.

Hart was also able to record one more top-three finish with second place in the 500-yard free behind Bassi, who grabbed her second first-place finish of the meet. Pangilinan’s last top-three finish came in the 200-yard breaststroke.

Wilson’s second first-place finish came in the 100-yard freestyle. She was followed by sophomore Catherine Skoda in third. Wilson also took second place in the 200-yard freestyle. Senior Erin Mulkey led the 1-2-3 finish, with Wilson in second and Skoda in third.

Freshman Emiley Jellie had another standout day, winning the 1,650-yard free.

“She has an international meet background,” Lee said. “She definitely brings a lot to the team from that standpoint.”

Senior Jane Evans won the 200 yard butterfly, and senior Kim Ono and freshman Linnea Sundberg finished 1-2 in the 200-yard backstroke.

The two events Harvard didn’t win were the 50-yard free and the 200-yard free relay.

“We had won the meet at that point,” Davidson said. “We were just giving a lot of people an opportunity to swim in the relay. I think that if it came down to the last relay we would have done things differently.”

The Harvard divers also had a great meet as they took the top two spots in both the one-meter and three-meter events. Sophomores Alison Pipitone and Samantha Papadakis finished 1-2 in the one-meter. In the three-meter, Papadakis took first and Pipitone finished second.

Harvard’s next meet will be against tough competition as it hosts Northeastern and Kansas at Blodgett Pool.

“It’s a chance for us to race really fast and see what we can do,” Davidson said. “Everyone is getting really excited for it and looking to see what they can do and what we can do.”

—Staff writer Abigail M. Baird can be reached at ambaird@fas.harvard.edu.