The Harvard men’s basketball team earned its fourth consecutive Ivy League championship, closing out the season with eight consecutive wins and becoming the first team to qualify for this year’s NCAA tournament. The basketballers (26-4, 13-1 Ivy) claimed the title with a 70-58 shellacking of Yale at New Haven, gaining revenge for the Crimson’s only conference loss, a Bulldog victory at Lavietes Pavilion in February. The 26 wins tied the all-time Harvard season record and the 13 Ivy victories set a new season standard for the Crimson. Laurent Rivard ’14 sank four three-point shots in the last game, against Brown. His 282 career threes put him into second place all-time in the Ivy League. (Harvard Magazine profiled the team’s two point guards, sophomore Siyani Chambers and senior Brandyn Curry, last fall.)
With a 69-65 win over Yale, women’s basketball head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith reached 515 victories to pass Princeton men’s coach Pete Carril to become the basketball mentor with the most wins in Ivy League history. At season’s end, her career mark stood at 516-347 over 32 years. The women’s squad (21-7, 11-3 Ivy) finished third in the league, behind Princeton and Penn, who tied for first with 11-2 records.
Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving squads captured Ivy League championships at their respective season-ending Ivy meets. At the Brown University pool, the women recorded 1,409 points to out-touch Princeton by 25, the slimmest margin of victory in a decade. It’s their eleventh Ivy title and third in five years.
The aquamen outswam the rest of the Ancient Eight in Harvard’s Blodgett Pool during a three-day Ivy meet (February 28-March 2), beating Princeton by 82 points to win the conference title and break a five-year Tiger run of Ivy wins. Harvard broke four pool records and a meet record in the process. Senior co-captain Chris Satterthwaite, profiled in Harvard Magazine along with his swimming brothers, won finals in the 100 free, 200 free, the 200 and 800 free relays, and the 400 medley relay. Then, in the meet-ending 400 free relay, he and Jack Manchester ’17, Griffin Schumacher ’15, and Oliver Lee ’14 eclipsed a 34-year-old pool record by finishing in 2:53.64.
The men’s and women’s squash teams’ top players, Ali Farag ’14 and Amanda Sobhy ’15, profiled here, both completed undefeated seasons by winning national individual championships at the CSA season-ending tournament at Penn. Both teams were Ivy champions, with the men adding a national championship as well this year.
