crimson turns tide; wins ivy championship

Courtesy of Harvard Athletic Communications

The No. 25 Harvard women’s swimming and diving team claimed its ninth league championship with another strong performance Saturday, continuing to use its balanced attack to set three more school records and finish 249.5 points ahead of the field at the 2009 Ivy League Championships at the Nassau County Aquatic Center.

Freshman Meghan Leddy earned her first Ivy League title in the 200-yard backstroke, setting school and meet records in the process, while junior Alexandra Clarke’s school record led another dominant distance performance for the Crimson with her record-breaking 1,650 freestyle swim. The sophomore quartet of Katy Hinkle, Katherine Pickard, Ali Slack and Kate Mills capped the meet with a record-breaking runner-up performance in the 400 free relay. Mills also set a school record in the 200 butterfly prelims.

Harvard finished the meet with six event championships, 10 school records and 11 NCAA Championships provisional qualifying times. The Crimson totaled 1,583.5 points, while three-time defending champion Princeton placed second with 1,334 and Yale also broke into four digits with 1,038 points. Harvard had finished second each of the last three years since claiming its last league title in 2005.

harvard’s leddy leads way in 200 back

Harvard’s surge to the lead in the 2009 Ivy League Swimming & Diving Championships has been in large part to the strong contingent of veteran swimmers on Stephanie Wriede Morawski’s squad.

But on Saturday night, it was a freshman that took center stage.

Capitalizing on the injury absence of defending champion Sara Coenen, Harvard’s Meghan Leddy earned the 200y Backstroke title for 2009 by swimming with the poise of a seasoned veteran, despite obvious youth.

Trailing by only .01 to Columbia’s Lauren Fraley after the first split, Meghan dug down and executed an incredible turn, which propelled the upstart into the lead. She then continued to extend her lead on Fraley with seemingly every stroke.

But the race wasn’t over by any stretch of the imagination. Leddy had to hold off a furious charge by Penn’s Ainsley Cookingham. The junior, who has developed a reputation of a great closer, looked to reel the freshman in with a 29.89 final leg, but the difference was too great while the distance was too small.

And Leddy was just too quick. The freshman finished at 1:59.65 and took down her first individual Ivy championship.

final event of day 2 goes the way of the crimson

In the 800 Free Relay, the Harvard Crimson held off the Princeton Tigers to earn the victory and extend a lead heading into the final competition.

The powerful team from Cambridge of Alexandra Clarke, Katherine Pickard, Catherine Zagroba and Katie Mills had the lead on nearly every change. But it was the heroics of Kate Mills that secured the win as she staved off a furious challenge from Princeton’s Alicia Aemisegger on the final leg. 

The Harvard sophomore countered every move that the Princeton junior had. And in the end, she secured full points for the Crimson, which finished in 7:13.71.

harvard jumps to the lead as five are dq’d

[Editor Update — I have been informed that protests have been lodged for both relays tonight… and therefore each relay has been termed “Unofficial Pending Review”. The results have not been recorded as final just yet. Stay tuned – this may get interesting.]

Talk about the perfect start to an imperfect day. We have started the nightcap… but in an event of eight squads — the 200 Free Relay — only three teams finished without penalty.

Harvard’s grouping of Katherine Pickard, Ali Stack, Laura Murray and Katy Hinkle outlasted Yale and Brown to take the first event of the evening.

But it wasn’t without fireworks. The boost in the team competition surely puts Harvard in the driver’s seat.

Coaches of the disqualified team’s put forth a joint protest… but to no avail.

The Crimson clocked in at 1:32.90.

previewing the squads: harvard

Harvard has traditionally battled Princeton for Ivy supremacy and the Crimson are poised to give it another run … The school records in all freestyle, butterfly and individual medley events are current team members … Sophomore Kate Mills owns four marks (500 free, 100 fly, 200 fly, 200 IM) … Classmates Katy Hinkle (50 free) and Katherine Pickard (100 free, 200 free, 400 IM) hold down four others … Hinkle — a several time All-American in high school — won the Ivy 50 free championship last year as a freshman … Then there is junior captain Alexandra Clarke, whose distance marks are among the best in Ivy history … Her 1,000 free time at the Ivy Championships a year ago was even faster than Olympic gold medal Cristina Teuscher ever swam, but Clarke finished second to Alicia Aemisegger of Princeton.

2008 Finish — 1494 points; 2nd place