M. Swimming Bests Tigers For Title

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—For a third year in a row, the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team entered its final meet of the season, a tri-meet against both Yale and Princeton, with the Ivy League Championship on the line. All three teams showed up to the Robert J. H. Kiphuth Exhibition Swimming Pool at Yale undefeated on the year.

Unlike the past two seasons, however, where the Crimson saw its championship hopes slip away in excruciatingly close losses to the Tigers, this time around Harvard beat both teams for its first Ivy League Championship since the 2001-2002 season and ran its pristine Ivy League record of 6-0, 7-0 overall.

Princeton had dominated individual and relay freestyle events in its recent victories over Harvard, and after the first event history looked to be repeating itself. Princeton’s top 200-yard freestyle relay team appeared to have captured the race, beating Harvard’s A-team by nearly two seconds.

With a simple gesture of a judge’s hand, however, the result was reversed—the scoreboard changed to show that the Princeton team had been disqualified, giving Harvard the event.

The Crimson would never relinquish that lead en route to two blowout victories.

In last season’s loss, Harvard lost all seven freestyle events to the Tigers. This year, Crimson was able to win four of those events.

The difference-maker was senior John Cole, who won three of freestyle events—the 200-yard, 500-yard and 1650-yard freestyle races. Cole, along with fellow senior James Lawler, took last year off to train for last summer’s Olympic trials.

Their returns have clearly meant a lot to the team—in addition to Cole’s wins, Lawler won the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly and was also a part of both medley relay victories.

“Cole and Lawler were both sorely missed last year and we’re thrilled to have them back,” junior Billy Gray said. “Both of them bring great intensity to practice, day in and day out, and score huge for us in meets.”

As far as their role in motivating the team, Gray spells it out.

“When you have two guys who devoted an entire year of their lives to swimming in hopes of making the US Olympic team, it raises the bar for everyone else in the pool,” he said.

Not that the Crimson needed extra motivation for such an important meet, but an additional spark was provided by junior Billy Cocks who turned in one standout performance after another during the meet.

Cocks dropped nearly two seconds to win the 100-yard breaststroke, dropped more than six seconds on his way to a third-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley and dropped nearly four seconds to take second in the 200-yard breaststroke.

But Harvard coach Tim Murphy was hardly surprised.

“[Cocks] practiced with passion and purpose consistently throughout the season,” Murphy said. “It was time to perform at a level he has worked for and he did.”

Also winning multiple individual events were junior David Cromwell and freshman Geoff Rathgeber. Cromwell won both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke events, while Rathgeber claimed both the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medleys.

With the Ivy crown secured, the Crimson finishes its dual meet season Feb. 12th against Penn, and then will turn its preparation to the upcoming ECAC and EISL Championships.

“We were all thrilled with the win and surprised by the margin of victory [against Princeton]. But we definitely don’t expect Princeton to roll over for Eastern’s,” Gray said. “The confidence we gained over the weekend should propel us through the next four weeks of training and leave us well prepared.”

As thrilled as Murphy was with the results of the meet, he was not satisfied.

“We will need to perform at a much higher level at EISL Championships if we expect to be successful,” he said.

—Staff writer Paul M. Soper can be reached at soper@fas.harvard.edu.