Crimson Starts Season with Sweep of Big Red, Big Green

ITHACA, N.Y.—Junior Christine Kaufmann and freshman Brittany Powell each won two events to lead the Harvard women’s swimming and diving team to a season-opening sweep of Cornell and Dartmouth Saturday afternoon at Teagle Hall. The Crimson topped the host Big Red, 166-129, and the Big Green, 203-92.

Kaufmann won the 200- and 500-yard freestyles, while Powell claimed victory in the one-meter and three-meter diving events. Harvard won 11 of the 14 events in which it competed, swimming the final two races as exhibitions. Freshmen competing in their first collegiate meet were responsible for six event wins, while sophomores Catherine Zagroba (1,000 free) Hilary Roberts (200 butterfly) and Meghan Leddy (200 backstroke) joined Kaufmann as veteran winners.

The Crimson twice swept the first three places in an event. First it was rookie Mackenzie Luick, Helen Pitchik and Alicia Lightbourne in the 100 breaststroke. Ellie Johnson, Monica Burgos and Kelly Robinson then took the top three spots two events later, in the 50 free. Kaufmann and Christine Hughes claimed first and second in the 200 free, while Zagroba and Leddy went 1-2 in the 1,000 and Camille Hendrix and Johnson swept the top spots in the 100 free.

Clare Foster debuted with a win in the 200 breast, while Hughes was third in that race. Fellow freshmen Carol Lin and Caroline Weaver also had top-three finishes, placing second in the 200 butterfly and third in the 100 back, respectively. Leddy, Luick, Burgos and Johnson finished second to Cornell in the 200 medley relay. Swimming the 200 individual medley as an exhibition, Weaver touched the wall first and Foster touched third.