Crimson Hosts Harvard Swimming and Diving Invitational This Weekend
Johnson was one of nine different Harvard athletes to win at Cornell (photo courtesy David Silverman).
The Storyline
The Harvard women’s swimming and diving team opens its home
schedule and competes in its first championship-style meet of the
season as it hosts the Harvard Swimming and Diving Invitational
Friday through Sunday at Blodgett Pool.
The Particulars
The women’s swim teams visiting Blodgett for the weekend are
Rutgers, Columbia, Sacred Heart and Wagner. The diving competition
will feature both men’s and women’s divisions, with
Rutgers, Columbia, Boston College, Boston University, Central
Connecticut State, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Northeastern and
Yale competing.
The meet gets underway with the first preliminary session Friday
at 11 a.m. Friday’s finals will be held at 6 p.m. The same
schedule will be in place Saturday, with diving also going on all
day. Sunday’s preliminary heats will begin at 9:30 a.m.
Diving will continue throughout the day, and early heats of the
1,650-yard freestyle will begin around 1 p.m. The last finals
session will get underway Sunday at 4:30 p.m. A full schedule is
linked above as a PDF document.
Last Time Out
Junior Christine Kaufmann won the 200 and 500 freestyles and
freshman Brittany Powell swept the diving events to lead the
Crimson to a season-opening sweep of host Cornell and Dartmouth
Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y. Harvard topped the Big Red, 166-129, and
the Big Green, 203-92, and won 11 of the 14 events in which it
competed. Four other freshmen joined Powell as winners in their
collegiate debut meet: Clare Foster (200 breaststroke), Camille
Hendrix (100 free), Ellie Johnson (50 free) and Mackenzie Luick
(100 breast).
National Attention
The Crimson, which finished last season ranked 25th nationally, is
again receiving attention from the national poll voters. Harvard
received votes in the first CollegeSwimming.com/College Swimming
Coaches Association of America Division I Swimming and Diving Team
Poll of the season.
Scouting the Swimming Opposition
Rutgers, which also received a vote in the national poll, is off
to a 3-0 start to the season, having posted wins against Big East
Conference rivals Connecticut, West Virginia and Villanova. The
Scarlet Knights are one of four teams from the northeast United
States receiving national votes, along with Harvard, Pittsburgh and
Princeton.
Columbia fell in its season opener against Yale, 199-101 and is
coming off a fifth-place finish in last season’s Ivy League
Championships. Wagner has already competed in six dual meets. The
Seahawks own a 4-2 record and have won three straight meets,
against St. Francis (N.Y.), Sacred Heart and NJIT. Sacred Heart is
seeking to gain momentum after picking up one win in its first five
dual matchups.
Coming Attractions
This is Harvard’s final competition of the calendar year.
Following final exams in December, the Crimson will compete in the
Princeton Diving Invitational and a dual meet at Penn Jan. 8-9. The
Crimson swimmers will then visit Barbados for a training trip,
while the divers will head to Hawaii.
