In the 100-yard freestyle Ward finished third and broke her previous Harvard varsity record of 51.11 by finishing at 50.94. Mulkey finished close behind at 51.93 to finish sixth.
“I was really happy that I broke the record,” Ward said. “Also, I was seeded fourth going into the race and came in third so I was excited to move up a place to get the team more points.”
In the 200-yard breastroke freshman LeeAnn Chang (2:18.12) almost posted another Crimson victory but was just touched out at the finish by Princeton’s Stephanie Hsiao (2:17.92).
Harvard also had four swimmers in the final heat of the 200-yard butterfly. Nadeau pulled out a second-place finish with a time of 2:02.64 followed by sophomore Jane Evans—who also finished second in Friday’s 400-yard individual medley—who came in fourth in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:04.36. Freshman twins Kelly Blondin (2:04.60) and Stacy Blondin (2:05.25) came in sixth and eighth respectively to round out the Crimson’s top-eight finishes in the event.
Other strong performances throughout the week included junior Allison Bates’ performance in the 100-yard butterfly in which she finished second, narrowly missing a race victory and a school record.
“[The record] was definitely something I wanted to get,” Bates said. “It is definitely on the horizon, but I can’t be disappointed because it was a best time for me.”
The team of Brethauer, co-captain Erica DeBenedetto, Chang and Ward finished third in the 200-yard medley relay on Friday with a time of 1:44.21. The 800-yard free relay of Weisenthal, Kelly Blondin, Nadeau and Wilson finished third with a time of 7:28.73.
Even with the narrow defeat, Harvard has many positives to look back on at the conclusion of its season. In last year’s championship, Princeton beat the Crimson handily by more than 200 points, a far cry from the 16.5 points that separated the two teams in this year’s meet. Harvard’s depth, above all, ignited its performance this year and allowed the team to score in bunches.
“We only had two individual champions and no relay wins and we were still only down by 16.5 points,” Morawski said. “All year long we have been emphasizing that it takes the full team to be successful. We only competed with 17 swimmers and three divers and the remaining 10 athletes were integral to this meet and kept up the momentum. The reason we were so close to Princeton was because of the depth on the team.”
Coming into the championship, a lot of pressure was placed on Harvard due to its strong performances throughout the season.
“There was a lot of pressure but I think we handled it well,” Morawski said. “After the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet everyone was talking about us, and we knew coming in that [winning the championships] was going to be tough.”