Aquamen Retain Slim Lead in Easterns

The team battle tightened and individual pool and meet records continued to fall, despite a minor flu epidemic that has affected members of practically every team, in yesterday's second day of Eastern Seaboard Championship competition at Blodgett Pool.

Princeton narrowed Harvard's lead to 15 points, 369-354, but lost a golden opportunity to enter the final day trailing by only three when the Crimson pulled off a stunning "upset" in last evening's final event, the 800-yd. freestyle relay.

Princeton, with its four 200-yd. freestyle finalists, seemed unbeatable in the distance relay, but Harvard's Bobby Hackett grabbed a five-yard lead on the opening leg and his teammates (Julian Mack, Jack Gauthier and Mike Coglin) staved off a late Princeton challenge to win by the slimmest of margins, 6:41.84 to 6:41.87. Both teams' performances qualified them for the NCAA meet March 22-24 in Cleveland. [Related story at right.]

The first event was even more successful in terms of points for the Crimson than the final one. Ron Raikula, Mike Coglin and Tim Maximoff all put together strong finishing legs in the 400-yd. individual medley to finish first, second and fourth, respectively. Raikula, who ranked among the top twenty in the world in the metric equivalent of this event this past summer, said afterwards, "After the butterfly, I though I was out of it. Then, on the fourth leg of breaststroke, I looked over and was surprised to see that no one was really ahead of me."

The freshman from Shawnee Mission, Kansas, then outsprinted his teammates, Princeton's Ron Cummins and Columbia's Lincoln Djang to win in 4:02.43, a meet record. Raikula and Coglin also qualified for the NCAAs.

Princeton closed the team scoring gap with a devastating performance in the 200-yd. freestyle. Tiger junior Andy Saltzman burst into the lead after 75 yards and handed Crimson superstar Bobby Hackett (one of those weakened by the flu) his first individual defeat ever in Easterns competition, qualifying for the NCAAs (1:39.01) in the process.

Saltzman's teammates--Beaver O'Hara, Howard Nelson and Craig Peterson--finished fourth, seventh and eighth respectively, scoring an incredible 58 points for the single event.

Tiger captain Bruce Kone upset teammate and defending champion Bill Specht in the 100-yd. butterfly, but the bigger story was Harvard's placing four men among the top 11. Sophomore Dan Menichella also turned in a notable performance, as his clocking of 50.96 in winning the consolation heat topped his previous lifetime best of 52.70.

Crimson freshman Jack Gauthier led the race from the start, but was forced to take a short, extra stroke at the finish, allowing Kone to touch first.

Navy's Mark Heinrich successfully defended his title in the 100-yd. backstroke and became the first non-aligned (with super-powers Harvard or Princeton, that is) swimmer to take an event at the championship.

Harvard's Geoff Seelen led for most of the race, but "tightened up" in the final length and was unable to hold off the fast-closing Heinrich.

Princeton aided its cause by placing men fifth, ninth, tenth and 14th.

Koji Nishimura gave the service academies their second first-place finish, blitzing the field and qualifying for nationals with his meet record 57.37 in the 100-yd. breaststroke. The win was the first ever at the Easterns for the Army second-classman, who has consistently been among the league's top performers.

The Championship has been characterized thus far by overwhelmingly fast performances overall, despite the flu bug that has bitten many competitors.

Nearly every event has produced meet records and NCAA qualifiers, and in many events, times that would have placed among the top eight last year have not been fast enough to reach even the consolation finals.