Unshaven Aquamen Fall to Army, 72-41

The Harvard men's swimming team will be anxiously checking under the tree at Blodgett Pool Christmas morning, shaking the boxes and peeking under the wrapping paper of every gift that lies there.

That's because the Crimson, unquestionably one of the best groups of talented young swimmers on the East Coast, is hoping to find that Santa has left that magical formula that turns teams into winners.

The squad's need for this potion was very clear Saturday afternoon in West Point, N.Y., as the aquamen came upon another shaved opponent in Army and fell to the Cadets by a 72-41 margin. The defeat dropped Harvard to a 3-2 overall mark (2-2 EISL, 1-1 Ivy League).

Most of the times posted by the Crimson were solid for this point in the season, and would have been winners against another unshaven team. But the Cadets took to the razors for last week's big showdown with Navy, and all they needed was a touch-up job on Friday night to provide Harvard with its second league loss of the early season.

"Once again, we've encountered a team that has different goals than we do," Harvard Co-Captain Keith Kaplan said. "Army made their season by winning in a meet that was less important to us than others down the road, like Princeton and Easterns. It's frustrating to lose like that, but we have to keep the goals of the season in mind. There are a full two-and-one-half months until Easterns and we expect to win there."

Army dominated the scoring in almost every race, taking 10 out of the day's 13 events. The only individual bright spots for the Crimson came in the 200-yd. freestyle and 200 backstroke, with freshman Kevin Williams and sophomore Paul Watson posting victories with strong times.

Watson set a meet record with his time of 1:52.95 in the backstroke. The defending Eastern champion in the event, Watson touched one-half second ahead of the nearest Army rival to give the Crimson a much-needed emotional boost.

Despite its lack of success against the shaven Cadets, Harvard refused to quit The Crimson took first place in the final event--the 400 freestyle relay. Kaplan, Greg Tull, Michael Lin and Tom Peterson covered the distance in 3:10.12.

But Army had the big guns for when it needed them, and the still-hairy Crimson had no chance.

Army's Mark Matheson pulled a distance-freestyle double, grabbing the 500 and 1000 freestyle races. In addition, seven other Cadets posted individual-race victories.

In diving, Harvard senior Patrick Healy finished second on both boards against competition by three Army divers.

The Crimson finishes up 1988 still hoping to discover the magic that brought eight-straight Eastern titles to Blodgett Pool from 1979 to 1986. And some of that positive energy may come in the form of the squad's other co-captain, Olympic gold-medalist David Berkoff, who becomes eligible to swim on February 1, three days before the team's big dual-meet showdown at Princeton.

Without question, Harvard will shave for the Tigers. And Princeton will undoubtedly do the same for the Crimson. So there will be no question as to who the better team will be when the dust clears.

Berkoff knows that he cannot win the meet on his own. But if he happened to bring back any magic potions from Seoul, he might want to leave some under the tree at Blodgett Pool.

Because Christmas comes only once a year, and the timing could not be better for the Crimson.