EISL Championships: Harvard Takes Lead

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, March 6. HARVARD swimmers set three pool records on day one of the 2008 EISL Championship held at Blodgett Pool, helping No. 22 Harvard to a first-place showing.

The 400 medley relay quartet of freshman Jordan Diekema, senior Geoff Rathgeber, junior Bill Jones and senior Pat Quinn closed out the racing with a pool, meet and EISL record with a collective mark of 3:13.34. The Crimson broke the Blodgett mark that was set back in 1981.

With the victory in the final event of the day, Harvard accumulated a total 485 points, 83 more than second-place Princeton (402). Navy is in third with 280 points, while Yale is in fourth place with 260. Harvard earned both 64-point events Thursday, the 400 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay, to take a comfortable lead.

Rathgeber was a part of two other Crimson record-breaking performances as he established a new pool standard in the 200 IM, finishing with an NCAA "A" time of 1:45.62. With that mark, Rathgeber is an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships March 27 in Federal Way, Wash. The previous Blodgett mark of 1:46.25 was set in 1980 by UCLA's William Barrett. Rathgeber already owns the meet and EISL record for the 200 IM (1:44.67), which he posted last season.

Freshman Justin Davidson and senior Michael Bowen joined Rathgeber in the top 10 of the 200 IM. Davidson (1:50.99) swam eighth, and Bowen (1:50.84) was the 10th swimmer to finish in the event.

Rathgeber was also a member of the 200 freestyle relay that placed first, setting another Blodgett Pool record in the process. With Yale leading after the first leg, the Crimson caught up and tied the event. In the final left, Quinn, a senior sprinter, swam past his Bulldog counterpart, and touched the wall first for the victory. Quinn, Rathgeber, junior David Guernsey and freshman Will Heyburn swam a collective time of 1:19.31.

This was the second time that Harvard broke the pool record in the 200 free relay Thursday, as these same Crimson swimmers broke the mark set in 2000 during the preliminaries (1:19.96.)

Harvard won its fourth race when senior Sam Wollner and junior Eric Lynch finished 1-2 in the 500 freestyle. Wollner swam the course in 4:22.13, while Lynch was right behind in 4:22.17. With those marks, both swimmers posted NCAA "B" qualifying times. Sophomores Mason Brunnick and Alex Meyer placed 4-5 in the 500 freestyle with times of 4:24.81 and 4:26.09, respectively, which are both NCAA "B" cuts. Harvard freshman Blake Lewkowitz was 10th (4:28.77), while classmate Douwe Yntema finished 12th (4:29.25).

In the 1-mtr dive, senior Lucas Sanders posted the fourth best score on the board with 282.75.

Crimson swimmers went 4-5 in the 50 freestyle as Quinn and Guernsey were the quickest Harvard swimmers in the event. Quinn touched the wall in 20.23, and Guernsey had a time of 20.38. Heyburn (20.80) and Bill Jones (20.94) were 11th and 12th, respectively.

Special thanks to Harvard for contributing this report.

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