Men’s Swim and Dive Sweeps BC and Penn in Dual Home Meet

In scientific experiments, a result only matters if it can be replicated. For Harvard men’s swim and dive, the same principle applies.

The Crimson (7-0, 5-0 Ivy) secured a pair of victories in a dual meet against Boston College (4-7, 0-2 ACC) and the University of Pennsylvania (4-5, 2-5 Ivy) for the second consecutive year, winning 244-50 and 207-92, respectively, on Saturday at Blodgett Pool.

Harvard swept the top four places in both the three and one-meter dives and finished in first in all events but two. Notably, in the 200-yard backstroke, sophomore Adriano Arioti finished under the NCAA qualifying time by one-tenth of a second.

“It was a solid performance,” Harvard Head Coach Kevin Tyrrell said. “I think some of the speed work that we’re doing is starting to come into play, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re continuing to work hard, practice, and get ready for Harvard-Yale-Princeton in a couple of weeks.”

Arioti and sophomore Evan Croley tied on the first leg of the 200-yard medley relay, while junior Sonny Wang and sophomore Marre Gattnar pushed through on the freestyle leg for Harvard to claim first and second place.

Freshmen William Mulgrew and Pablo Martinez, both of whom have recorded NCAA qualifying times in the 1650-yard freestyle, finished in the top-two in the 1000-yard freestyle. Mulgrew shaved six-tenths of a second off his season best in the event.

In only his second meet this season, junior Tristan Dalbey won his first event of the season in the 200-yard freestyle.

Another dominant performance from Arioti was in the 100-yard backstroke, where he finished two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher and swam 15 hundredths faster than his season best time. Arioti also won the 200-yard backstroke by five seconds, finishing one-tenth under the NCAA cut time.

“Adriano [Arioti] is swimming fast because he’s put in the work, and he’s doing a really good job academically and athletically because of the habits he’s developed this year,” Tyrrell said. “The more guys that make good decisions in and out of the pool, the better the life they’re going to have post graduation.”

For the second straight week, sophomore Joshua Chen cut two-tenths off his personal best in the 100-yard breaststroke. Chen finished in second place after remaining neck-and-neck with Penn’s Watson Nguyen, the only returning top-three finisher at last year’s Ivy League Championships.

Tri-captain David Schmitt, the only other Harvard swimmer who’s recorded an NCAA qualifying time, dominated the 200-yard butterfly by four seconds — the event for which he holds a school record.

For diving, senior Raphael Tourette finished first in both events to lead the Crimson’s top-four sweep.

Penn’s strongest event came in the 2oo-yard breaststroke, where the team finished in three of the top four spots. Peter Whittington, who finished fourth at the Ivy League Championships, led the Quakers by finishing first in the event.

Harvard finished the individual events of the meet by sweeping the podium in the 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly. Croley’s standout 43.9-second opening leg led the Crimson to close the dual meet by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay.

The Crimson has two weeks of rest before it will finish its conference play in a two-day dual meet against Yale and Princeton at Blodgett beginning on Jan. 30.

Harvard-Yale-Princeton will be the last chance for Harvard’s swimmers to show their strengths in an official meet and secure one of the coveted 17 individual spots on the Crimson’s conference championship team.

“If somebody is struggling academically, then they might work themselves off of the Ivy team. The second thing is an accumulation of work. Did they do enough work from when the season started until the end?” Tyrrell said. “The third thing is people who have the right attitude mentally. I need guys who believe they can swim fast for their teammates versus guys who have doubts.”

“There definitely are eight or nine guys who are absolutely on the Ivy team, and spots 10 through 17 are up for grabs. That’s what we’re going to figure out in the next couple of weeks. Some of those decisions won’t be made right until the week of Ivy Championships,” the coach added.

All three teams enter HYP undefeated in Ivy League competition. Harvard will look to avenge its dual losses from last year’s meet as its final preparation before heading into the Ivy League Championships at the end of February.

“We’ve got a really good plan, and I think our guys believe in the plans that we have laid out. The biggest thing will be making sure that everybody stays healthy when everybody from around the world starts to come back on campus,” Tyrrell said. “We’ve done most of the work, so it’s really more about rest than anything else.”

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @uybpham or on Signal at ubp.88.