The Crimson opened their Ivy League season on Saturday with a tri-meet against the Cornell and Dartmouth women’s teams at Blodgett Pool. Harvard won a narrow victory over Cornell (156-144) and downed Dartmouth (246-54). Full results.
Harvard and Cornell won eight events each amid some notable swims, but it was Harvard’s divers that kept the Crimson from falling to the Big Red in their home opener. Harvard swept the 3-meter with freshman Hannah Allchurch (295.35), Elina Leiviska, and Schuyler Moore leading the way, and the 1-meter behind, Leiviska (279.10), Alisha Mah, and Moore.
The Cornell squad was particularly impressive in Cambridge. Junior Jenna Immormino won three individual events, the most of any swimmer in the meet. In the sprint frees, she topped Harvard’s Victoria Chan 23.41-23.79 in the 50, and Danielle Lee 50.63-50.90 in the 100. Then she led a 1-2 sweep in the 100 fly, going 55.49 ahead of teammate, freshman Emily Rhodes (56.05). Rhodes was fourth at the halfway mark but came home strong, just edging Harvard’s Kendall Crawford.
Crawford won two of her own. Her 55.73 led a 1-2-3 Harvard finish in the 100 back, while in the 200 back she finished in a comfortable 2:01.71. Second in that race was Cornell’s Billy Murch Elliot with 2:04.53, who also finished second in the 200 IM (2:06.68), .39 behind her sister and teammate, Currie Murch Elliot (2:06.29). Currie had two second-place finishes in the 1000 free and 500 free.
Harvard senior Stephanie Ferrell won the 100 breast with 1:05.06. Cornell senior Meredith Drummond (1:06.27), having finished second to Ferrell in the 100, won the 200 breast in 2:21.51. She was also the third of four Cornell swimmers to sweep the 200 IM, after the Murch Elliot sisters, and in front of Jennifer Zhang. Zhang took second to teammate Isabelle Cecere in the 200 fly, 2:05.73 to 2:06.43.
Freshman Regan Kology kicked of her Harvard career with a big win in the 1000, touching in 10:10.05. Teammates Sherry Liu (1:50.92) and Daniela Johnson (1:52.16) went 1-2 in the 200 free. In the 500, though, it was Cornell freshman Micaela Luders with the win, clocking in at 4:56.90.
Dartmouth found themselves overpowered in pretty much every event, but the Big Green had several bright spots. Freshman AnnClaire MacArt had a nice start to her Ivy experience with a couple of strong swims in the distance freestyles. Macart was fourth in the 1000 with 10:24.41, just 2/100 ahead of Harvard junior Marlee Ehrlich. She then went 1:53.18 to take fourth in the 200 free, and wrapped it up with another fourth in the 500, touching in 5:02.06.
Dartmouth sprinter Charlotte Kamai had several good swims. She took seventh in the 50 free with 24.19 and fourth in the 100 free with 52.15. She also had the second-fastest split of the entire meet in the 400 free relay (51.29), although the Dartmouth team was disqualified.
Final Scores
Harvard University 239 – 61 Dartmouth College
Harvard University 156 – 144 Cornell University
Cornell University 216 – 84 Dartmouth College