Swimmers Torpedo Princeton

The Harvard swim team came out of the locker room for its meet Saturday against Princeton sporting tee shirts that read "Harvard Swimming/Putting it on the line [with] Princeton." The Crimson aquamachine had won 25 dual meets in a row since a loss to Princeton three years ago, and it looked like the Tigers would be the only real threat to the winning streak this year.

Harvard's worries proved to be groundless, however, as the Crimson totally demolished a fine Princeton squad, 78-35.

The opening event was a portent for the rest of the meet as the Crimson medley relay team beat a Princeton quartet that ranks among the best in the East. Backstrokers Duncan Pyle and Bruce Kone fought almost evenly over their 110-yard segment, but breaststroker Ted Fullerton began to edge away from Tiger Charles Hector.

Super Frosh

George Keim increased Harvard's lead and freshman Malcom Cooper more than held his own in the anchor leg against Princeton's super frosh Alan Fine. Harvard's time of 3:31.8 bested the previous pool record by almost two seconds.

In the second race, the 1000-yard freestyle, the Crimson had already conceded first place to Princeton's Joe Loughran and was hoping that Paco Canales could finish second, ahead of Tiger Rob Maass. As recently as last week Maass had covered the distance in 9:41, nine seconds better than Canales' best time.

As expected, Loughran took the race after a fast start. Maass went out more slowly, hoping to speed up at the end and nab second. Canales, who shaved for the meet, chose a pace in between.

"I went out too fast after Loughran," Canales said yesterday. "I soon realized I couldn't catch him and slowed down, but by 500 yards I was tired, and at 700 Maass caught me." The two dueled for 250 yards, but on the gun lap, Canales started to pull ahead. "I gave it all I had and beat him," Canales said.

Loughran, of course, won the race in 9:41, with Canales swimming a 9:44.9 (his best time by five seconds) and Maass finishing in 9:45.4.

Although Harvard led by only 10-6 after those two events, the Crimson had the momentum and was completely in command. "I thought Canales coming in second in the 1000 was the key to the meet," Crimson coach Ray Essick said yesterday. "After that I knew we had it."

In the first of his three winning performances, Hess Yntema blitzed all of his competition in the 200-yard freestyle. Yntema pulled out of the pack at 75 yards and swam pretty much alone in route to his two-second victory. Princeton's Loughran, who had just swum in the 1000, finished second in the race.

Time to Rest

Last year, Princeton coach Bill Farley staged a twelve-minute stall between the 1000 and 200 in order to give Loughran time to rest. Loughran then went out and defeated Yntema at that distance. This year Farley instructed freshman Bruce Peterson to take a leisurely swim in the 1000 (he finished three minutes behind everyone else), but couldn't find a way to stall the meet any further.

While almost every event had an outstanding performance by a Harvard swimmer, a few races stood above the others. In the 50-yard freestyle, Tim Neville, swimming in his fourth meet in two years, recorded a sterling 21.6 to win while teammate Keim placed second (21.8) ahead of highly touted Fred Test of Princeton.

Cooper swam a superb 100 free to defeat the Tiger's star frosh Fine. Cooper's time of 47.48 was one of the fastest on record at the IAB pool. Neville grabbed third place in the race.

Good English

Dave English looked good in the compulsory round of one meter diving and spectacular in the optional round of the one meter. He took first in the compulsory round and would have won the optional round if he had not been diving exhibition (meaning his place of finish did not count towards the outcome of the meet).

Sophomore Mike Toal took second in the compulsory round and would also have nabbed second in the optional round if he not been diving exhibition.