EISL Championships: Harvard Wins 20th Title

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, March 8. THE No. 22 Harvard men's swimming and diving team captured three events on the final day of competition and 13 overall en route to claiming the 2008 EISL Championship Saturday at Blodgett Pool.

The win caps a perfect 9-0 season for Harvard and marks the 20th EISL title for the Crimson, the first since 2005. The Crimson also claimed the Ivy League and EISL regular-season titles this year.

The Crimson finished the meet with 1,564 points, well ahead of second-place Princeton (1208.5). Yale (925), Columbia (913.5) and Navy (869.5) rounded out the top five team finishers.

Harvard got a huge boost in the opening event of the final day, placing six swimmers among the top 12 finishers in the 1650-yard freestyle, including the top three. Junior Eric Lynch lead the bevy of Crimson swimmers with an NCAA "B" qualifying time of 15:09.65 while Sam Wollner (15:11.48) and Alex Meyer (15.14.62) followed in second and third and also notched "B" qualifying marks. Mason Brunnick met the "B" standard with a sixth-place time of 15:25.18 and Blake Lewkowitz and Douwe Yntema rounded out the top 12 with times of 15:34.67 and 15.43.27, respectively.

Freshman Jordan Diekema followed with a win in the 200 backstroke, completing the race in a "B" qualifying time of 1:46.56. Derick Chui (1:49.75) and Michael Bowen (1:50.77) also scored points for Harvard in the event.

A two-three finish in the 100 freestyle saw two more Harvard swimmers claim "B" qualifying times as David Guernsey finished second in 44.06 and Pat Quinn was right on his heels at 44.13. Will Heyburn also chipped in points with a 13th-place time of 45.64.
Yet another event win came thanks to a "B" standard time by Geoff Rathgeber, as he won the 200 breaststroke in 1:58.97, nearly three seconds ahead of his closest competitor. Justin Davidson added 25 points for Harvard with a 2:02.13 finish, good for fifth place.

Bill Jones and brother Dan Jones had strong showings in the 200 butterfly, notching times of 1:46. 57 and 1:47.28 for second and sixth place, respectively. Both times were NCAA "B" qualifying marks and Bill's time eclipsed the previous EISL meet record in the event.

In the three-meter diving event, the Crimson received strong showings from Luke Sanders and Zac Ranta. Ranta compiled 302.55 points for a fifth place finish while Sanders scored 324 points for a third place finish.

Harvard capped the meet in fine style, recording a meet record time to win the 400 free relay. Guernsey, Rathgeber, Bill Jones and Quinn teamed for a time of 2:56.10 to seal the victory for Harvard.

Rathgeber also received two awards at the end of the meet. The senior was presented with the Philip Moriarty Award, given to the meet outstanding swimmer, which he shared with Yale's Alex Righi, and the Harold Ulen Award with is the career high point prize. Rathgeber won three meets during the weekend, including the 200 breaststroke, the 200 IM and the 400 IM.

Special thanks to Harvard for contributing this report.

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