M. Swimming wants revenge against Lions

So much for parity in the world of Ivy League men's swimming. After taking home the last three Eastern championship titles, Harvard dealt still another sharp blow to Princeton and Yale, who were looking to knock the Crimson off its throne. Harvard coach Mike Chasson already had the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League's deepest and most talented squad. In a case of the rich getting richer, Chasson then successfully recruited high school superstar Brian Younger to join his program. Younger was considered the nation's top distance recruit. In his senior year at St. Louis's Kirkwood High School, Younger posted times that would have won three events at last year's Easterns. Now he will be asked to win the races for real. Younger will get that opportunity today with the beginning of Easterns competition. The meet will continue through Saturday at Princeton's DeNunzio Pool. Younger has lived up to his advance billing, already posting EISL season-best times in four individual events -- the 500-, 1,000-, and 1,650-yard freestyles and the 400 individual medley. In addition, Younger swam the first leg on the conference's best 800 freestyle relay squad. In just his first year of collegiate competition, Younger has already established himself as the EISL's most explosive swimmer. While Younger dominates the freestyle events, Chasson will be counting on two-time all-American senior Tim Carver to score in the backstroke. Harvard has a long legacy of backstroke dominance, dating back to the mid-1970s when Thomas Wolf won two Easterns titles. The torch was passed to David Berkoff, who went on to win a bronze medal for the United States at the '92 Olympic Games. Carver, a five-event champion last year, can extend Harvard's string of 200 backstroke titles to eight with a victory. "If we can couple the potential of our younger classes with the experience our juniors and seniors bring, I am positive we can continue to develop on a national scale," Chasson said. Harvard's chief competition should come from Princeton. Like last year, Princeton is entering Easterns as the regular-season EISL champion. But because of Harvard's superior individual talent, the three-day format of Easterns clearly favors the Crimson. The Tigers will need strong performances from junior Fred Klein and senior Bruce Crock. Klein, who qualified for the NCAAs last year, will need to swim well in his freestyle events. Crock will try to hold of Harvard's Jan Esway and Rick Dzavik en route to a second-straight Easterns title in the 200 IM. Yale will try to counter Harvard's Younger in the distance freestyle races with seniors Mike Kostal and Adam Vann. Senior Jason Rosenbaum, who posted an EISL season-best time in the 50 freestyle, will anchor the Elis' sprint attack. But, overall, Yale lacks the talent of Harvard and the depth of Princeton. After those three, there is a huge drop in talent. Penn is hoping to capitalize on the weakness of the second tier. Likely to finish at the bottom are Dartmouth and Brown, the victims of the Quakers' lone conference victories. Penn is hoping it can avenge its three-point loss to Columbia in December by leap-frogging the Lions in the final standings. However, Navy and Army may be too strong for the Quakers and are likely to finish fourth and fifth respectively. Individually, Penn's only hope for a title rests on the shoulders of sophomore Jeff Brown. The star freestyler won at least one race during each of Penn's regular-season meets. But with the overall strength of EISL freestylers, a victory may be unrealistic. Penn's main goal this weekend will be to beat some of the teams it lost to earlier this season, specifically Columbia. The down-to-the-wire loss to the Lions has been a sore spot all year, and now the Quakers finally get a chance to redeem themselves. While the Penn-Columbia rivalry will be a subplot of the championships, the spotlight will be on Brian Younger and the Harvard Crimson. "We're raising our goals higher," Chasson said. "I want Harvard to have a bigger impact at the national championships."