Middies Swamp Swimmers, 66-29

Navy's swimmers got their Christmas present two weeks early on Saturday at Annapolis. Harvard's Bill Shrout had a 102 degree fever and could only swim in one event, the 50 yard freestyle, which he lost in mediocre time.

The Middies won three of Shrout's other specialties, the 100-and 200-yard freestyles, and the 200-yard individual medley, and trounced a psyched-out Crimson squad 66 to 29.

A Long Afternoon

After the first event, the 400-yard medley relay, Coach Bill Brooks must have known it would be a long afternoon. Captain Bruce Fowler glided through the fastest 100-yard breaststroke of his life in 1:01.1 and butterflyer Neville Hayes churned through his leg in a surprising 54.1 seconds, but the Crimson blew their lead anyway on the last leg. From then on, it was a romp for Navy.

The Middles won nine of 11 events, including sweeps in the dive, 200-yard freestyle, and 200-yard backstroke. All that with their star, Eastern breaststroke champ Dallas Clarke, swimming only once and losing eight yards on his leg of the medley relay.

Crimson Victories

Hayes and Bob Corris scored the Crimson's only victories of the meet. Corris grabbed the lead after two laps and led Fowler to a sweep of the 200-yard breaststroke in a slow 2:20.7. Hayes flailed his way to an early lead and maintained his pace to finish the 200-yard butterfly in a fast 2:01.3.