Women's Swimming Sets Slew of Records in Strong Showing

Harvard women’s swimming and diving made a splash during its season opener against Ivy League rivals Dartmouth and Cornell in Hanover, N.H. this past Friday. The Crimson emerged from the water with 184.5-115.5 and 186-114 wins over the Big Red and Big Green, respectively. By the end of the night, Harvard further decorated its start to the season by nabbing six pool records and nine event wins.

This wasn’t the first time that the Crimson posted a strong first performance against Dartmouth and Cornell: Harvard has opened against the two schools since 2007, wining each of those meets. But the Crimson had no intention of taking its opponents lightly this time around.

“We didn’t want to go in complacent,” co-captain Ali Slack said. “We definitely wanted to show them just how well we’re doing this year and how hard we’ve been training these past few months.”

Helming the tide of success for Harvard was freshman Paige Newell, who came away with wins in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:07.19 and the 500-yard freestyle in 4:56.56—both new pool records.

“Paige is showing everyone what our freshman class can do,” senior Kate Mills said. “She was actually sick last week. When she came back, we all told her go out there and break the pool record, and she responded, ‘Alright.’ That just epitomizes the attitude of our freshmen.”

Mills herself established two pool records during the meet—one individual and the other as a part of the 400-yard freestyle relay with Slack, senior Katy Hinkle, and freshman Jenna Gregoire. Mills surged to a first-place finish in the 200 butterfly, clocking in at 2:01.19—more than three seconds ahead of the previous record. The 400-yard free relay closed out the meet with a 3:30.08 victory.

Hinkle complemented her teammates’ victories with another pool record finish of 23.68 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle and a win in the 100-yard freestyle, touching the wall in 52.35.

“The meet was amazing not only because of the times, but also just the way we came together cheering behind the lanes,” Slack said. “Everyone was really pulling together. The more we’re pushing ourselves, the better the end of our season is going to be.”

Junior Meghan Leddy also gave the Crimson reason to celebrate with a pool record-breaking victory in the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 1:59.88. Sophomore Mackenzie Luick added to Harvard’s point tally with a 2:22.29 first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke.

The Crimson diving squad bolstered the swimmers’ strong results. Sophomore Teagan Lehrmann came in second in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving finals, each behind Dartmouth freshman Katy Feng.

With another season underway, Harvard has its broader goal firmly in view: the Ivy League championship, which narrowly fell out of the team’s grasp last season. And the key to seeing the Ivy League title return to Blodgett Pool lies squarely in the details.

“What everyone else doesn’t get to see is that before every meet, we all stand up in front of one another and discuss our goals,” Mills said. “[Last Friday at Dartmouth], each and every one of us hit our personal goals. Each team we face is an opportunity to perfect our skill sets. It’s the little things that will end up making a huge difference.”

Its sights set on redemption, Harvard will carry this strong momentum to Uris Pool in New York on Friday, where the Crimson will face off against Columbia, which dropped its first meet to a strong Yale team this past weekend.

“I think we have a really special team this year, and Dartmouth is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we’re capable of accomplishing,” Mills said. “Every year’s team is different. It’s about how well personalities congeal, and this team’s atmosphere is incredible.”

—Staff writer Aparajita Tripathi can be reached at atripathi@college.harvard.edu.