Women’s Swim & Dive Sweeps First Home Meet of the New Year Against Penn and Boston College

The Harvard women's swim and dive team continued its winning ways, proving that it can dominate just as it did in Florida last week and at home. Harvard (8-0, 5-0 Ivy) defeated Penn (9-2, 5-2 Ivy) 199-101 and Boston College 251-45 this weekend to improve to 8-0 this season.

After a fruitful winter break camp, the team returned to Blodgett Pool for its first home meet of the new year and last competition before the start of the academic semester. The team hoped to build on the momentum it gained in Florida against FIU and Miami. This weekend, it faced the Penn Quakers and Boston College Eagles, both teams against whom Harvard has historically reaped success. The Crimson’s Head Coach, Amanda Kulik, and her swimmers were all looking forward to this meet.

“It’s so special to be back home at our home pool for 2026, and just the energy and the attitudes leading up to this meet,” Kulik remarked on performing in front of a home crowd.

“The theme of this year is joy,” the coach continued, speaking on her coaching philosophy this season. “[The athletes] are just happy, and the happy swimmer is a fast swimmer, the happy diver performs well. When they’re supported by one another or by one another, they just do well.”

The Crimson performed in front of packed bleachers, and cheers rang throughout the four-hour, men’s and women’s double dual meet. Junior swim captain Isabella Alas was thrilled to compete for so many supporters.

“It was really awesome just being able to look up in the stands and see family, friends, and alumni come back,” Alas said. “It’s just really, really special to have it in our home pool and just be all together. Having that support system means the world to us.”

The 200-yard medley relay team, consisting of seniors Anya Mostek and Sydney Lu and juniors Stephanie Iannaccone and Blythe Wieclawek, opened the meet. The swimmers finished with a time of 1:41.88, adding to the list of many wins under their belts. The Crimson posted a different combination of swimmers in the relay team from the previous week, showcasing the team’s depth and consistency.

Harvard demonstrated its prowess over both long and short distance events, with the endurance competitors posting a one-two in the 500-yard free. Freshman Caroline Daher touched first with a time of 4:55:81, narrowly beating out her teammate, junior Alexandra Bastone. This was Daher’s second victory of the day after winning the 1000-yard free.

Mostek swept the field as she chalked up wins in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke and the 50-yard freestyle. Her teammates followed these results with a win-streak in the 50-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard butterfly, capped off with a podium sweep in the 200-yard breaststroke, led by junior swim captain Stephanie Iannaccone.

“We just wanted to lean into each other, lean into the excitement, and just see what we could do. We’ve been training so hard, so to come back and to do this well, we’re very excited and happy with that,” Iannacone said.

Iannacone also logged a personal best in the 200m IM, where she shaved over four seconds off her previous best time to achieve a 2:03.58 finish.

Harvard’s wins continued to tally on the diving front, with senior Nina Janmyr claiming first place in both the one-meter and three-meter events.

The divers’ success was not only limited to the boards, but also with the team competing in the “diver’s race” tradition, an annual eight-woman relay against the Penn divers. This fun event epitomises Coach Kulik’s emphasis on centering joy within her team’s culture, and also served as an opportunity for the team to log yet another win, although not official, at a very successful meet.

The stellar results serve as a promising preview for the team’s biggest competition of the season, the Harvard-Yale-Princeton (HYP) meet. Senior diving captain Tabitha Chen-Fiske cannot wait to see how the team performs at the upcoming competition on Jan. 30 and 31.

“It’s really good preparation. We had the men's and women’s combined meet, which is how HYP is going to be. It was loud. It was super exciting,” Chen-Fiske said. “We saw some really amazing races and dives as well. So I think people are really gearing up well for the championship season.”

HYP marks the end of the regular season and serves as the annual Senior Meet to celebrate the team’s graduating class. Last year, the team beat both the Bulldogs and the Tigers, and it had an especially close race with Princeton.

—Staff writer Avani I. Shah-Lipman can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Rhiannon Stewart can be reached at [email protected].