Don't look for the Crimson to repeat its efforts of past years this weekend. After all, Harvard men's swimming and diving has won the Eastern title for the last five years--that gets boring after a while.

So this year, don't just expect a repeat performance of the last half-decade--expect the team to cover some new ground, er, water as well. This year's team (8-1, 6-1 Ivy) is primed to set as many as six school records at the championship at Army this weekend, in addition to the three records already broken during dual-meet competition.

Harvard also expects to qualify multiple swimmers for the NCAA competition to be held at Indianapolis later this month. Seniors Will Oren and Mike Im will be pivotal in moving the team's status up from its current No. 19 ranking.

The Crimson's only competition for the championship title could be the Princeton Tigers, who go into the meet with an undefeated dual-meet record. Princeton swimmers rested early last month in order to beat Harvard 197-156.

Princeton's record, however, does not faze the Harvard men at all.

"Our team has always been about swimming fast and making other schools recognize Harvard is for real," Im said. "This year is no different."

But this year has been different. Harvard's times are faster than any other year. Im's 200 backstroke time of 1:44.43 is currently second-fastest in the country, just five-hundredths of a second away from automatically qualifying for NCAAs. In addition, Im's 100 backstroke time is 13th in NCAA rankings.

Fans should look to Im's training partner sophomore Dan Shevchik to post fast times as well. Shevchik finished eighth in the 200 backstroke at Olympic Trials last summer.