Highlights of the Men’s Swimming and Diving Team in 06
Puerto Rico
Seven days of good training, sun, and surf added up to a successful training trip this year. We brought in the New Year with a very exciting and challenging ½ day survival hike through the rain forest jungle. Highlights also included a day trip to Old San Juan a quite a few humorous spills from our first time surfers.  The tans are starting to fade but the effort and teamwork throughout the trip will carry us  the rest of the year.

** 24th-Ranked Harvard Wins Big in Return to Action Strong showing for Crimson after a week of training in Puerto Rico
Jan. 7, 2006   Results  CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Harvard men's swimming and diving team improved to 3-1 on the season with a dominating 202.5-97.5 win over Rutgers Friday evening at Blodgett Pool. Geoff Rathgeber and David Cromwell each won two individual events for the Crimson, which will jump right back in the pool tomorrow when it heads to Navy for a 3:30 p.m. start. Harvard opened the meet by placing 1-2 in the Men's 200 medley relay. The team of David Cromwell, Geoff Rathgeber, Bill Jones and Mark Knepley won in a time of 1:32.01. Jason Degnan-Rojeski, Bill Cocks, Stephen Norberg and James Baily finished second in 1:35.84. Eric Lynch won the 1000 freestyle with a time of 9:32.81, while Billy Gray was third in 9:52.34. David Cromwell and David Guernsey went 1-2 in the 200 freestyle finishing in 1:41.21 and 1:43.34 respectively. Mark Knepley placed fourth in 1:43.63. Rathgeber and Degnan-Rojeski continued the Harvard dominance by taking the top two places in the 100 backstroke. Rathgeber won 50.28, while Degnan-Rojeski was second in 52.79. Bill Cocks made it five races in a row with a first place finish in the 100 breaststroke, swimming a 58.17. Harvard took four of the top five spots in the 200 butterfly. Bill Jones won in 1:52.79, and Sam Wollner was second, swimming 1:52.92. Dan Jones (1:54.10) and Rich Goettke (1:57.14) finished fourth and fifth, respectively. David Guernsey captured the 50 freestyle in a time of 21.34. Pat Quinn was second in 21.55, while James Bailey was fourth in 21.93. Harvard took the top three spots in the 100 freestyle. Mark Knepley won in 46.87, followed by Pat Quinn (47.15) and James Bailey (48.09). Jason Degnan-Rojeski kept thing rolling for the Crimson with a first place finish in the 200 Backstroke, swimming 1:54.07. Tim Parent was third in a time of 1:56.44 Geoff Rathgeber won his second event of the evening with a 2:04.50 in the 200 breaststroke. Bill Cocks was third in 2:06.71. Rutgers won its first event of the meet with a Scott Thompson victory in the 500 Free. He finished in 4:40.01. Brendan Mitchell was second for the Crimson in 4:44.43. David Cromwell and Bill Jones got things back on track with a 1-2 result in the 100 butterfly. They finished in 49.93 and 50.19, respectively. The Scarlet Knights got their second win with an Andrew Dilz win in the 200 IM but Harvard's Tim Parent (1:56.77), Dan Jones (1:58.90) and Stephen Norberg (1:58.93) finished in the 2-4 spots. Harvard closed out the meet by posting the top two times in the 200 free relay. Mark Knepley, David Cromwell, Geoff Rathgeber and Pat Quinn won in 1:22.90. Bill Jones, David Guernsey, James Bailey and Patrick Morrissey were second in 1:25.22 Danil Rybalko swept the one-meter and three-meter diving events. Andrew Novacek was sixth in the one-meter and fourth in the three-meter.

Rathgeber, Rybalko Sweep ECAC Honors Sophomore named Swimmer of the Week; Senior is Diver of the Week
Jan. 11, 2006  CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Following a weekend sweep of Rutgers and Navy, the 24th-ranked Harvard men's swimming and diving team has now swept the ECAC's weekly awards. Senior Danil Rybalko is the ECAC Diver of the Week, and sophomore Geoff Rathgeber is the Swimmer of the Week. Rybalko earned three first-place finishes and one second in the weekend's four diving events. He won both events Friday against the Scarlet Knights, taking the one-meter with 340.13 points and the three-meter with 356.71 points as the Crimson won the meet, 202.5-97.5. The Skokie, Ill., native won the one-meter with 327.75 points Saturday in Harvard's 170-130 win at Navy, defeating defending EISL champion Kevin Teague by 42.3 points. With 318.90 points, he placed second to Teague in the three-meter. Rathgeber won four individual races and contributed to three relay wins. In Friday's win against Rutgers, he won the 100-yard backstroke in 50.28 and the 200 breaststroke in 2:04.50 and contributed to Crimson wins in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays. On Saturday against the Midshipmen, the Kensington, Conn., native showed his versatility in claiming wins in the 400-meter individual medley and the 100-meter breaststroke. He also swam the second leg for the victorious 200 medley relay squad as the Crimson won, 170-130.

Crimson Sits Atop Power Rankings
 The Harvard men's swimming and diving team is ranked first in the latest CollegeSwimming.com Division I "mid-major" power rankings, giving Harvard the top team in the country in both the men's and women's polls. The Crimson, which is also ranked 25th in the latest College Swim Coaches Association national poll, leads the CollegeSwimming.com poll with 247.61 points. Navy, which Harvard defeated, 170-130, in its most recent meet Jan. 7, is ranked second with 246.89. Southern Illinois is third (243.81), followed by Princeton (242.72) and Missouri State (242.31).

Meet Schedule--our last 3 meets are all at Blodgett Pool
Harvard returns to action when it hosts Brown Jan. 27 at 4 p.m.
HYP is  Feb 3-4 Friday evening @ 6:00pm and Saturday 1:00pm
We finish our dual meet season at home against Penn on Saturday Feb 11th at 12:00pm
**Hope to see you there