Murphy, Two Others Go to NCAA Finals

Eastern diying champion Billy Murphy will lead a three man Harvard delegation -- including captain-elect Pete Alter and defending All-America Bob Corris -- to the NCAA swimming championships at Michigan State University Wednesday through Saturday.

Murphy shocked the Eastern diving world last weekend by upending Princeton's Holt Manness -- 1966 National champ -- in the three meter Eastern finals at Yale. Off that performance and his fourth place in the one meter competition, the red-headed sophomore won a trip to the nationals.

The 1964 Olympic Champion -- Ken Sitzberger -- and his top rival for national honors -- Bernie Wrightson -- will both be in East Lansing.

"A finish in the top 12 would make me All-America." Murphy said, "that's something I've always dreamed about." If he gets by the first two rounds and into the final three dives, he will qualify automatically.

Twisting Optional

The first two rounds will be fiercely fought events. And Murphy's weakest dive -- a twisting optional -- must come in the first round. All 50 divers run through five dives in the preliminaries -- three are specifically required of everyone and the other two are optional.

The top 16 from the prelims go on to the semis and the top 12 of these dive in the finals. And as swimming coach Bill Brooks said yesterday, "if a diver slips once, it's all over."

Murphy started diving as a high school freshman at Lake Forest, III., Academy, but he really started to improve when he transferred to swimming-oriented Willston Academy.

This season, he started slowly, but launched a five-meet winning streak about half-way through. "Actually everything started to come together after I lost to Manness by 13 points at Princeton," Murphy said. "I hit my peak against Yale" -- he won the dive by 40 points -- "and then the Eastern just fell into place."

If he should do extremely well at East Lansing, the 5-9 ace may compete in the TTU meet during Spring Vacation Otherwise he will get some rest after a brutal four hours of practice in preparation for the Nationals.

Breaststroker Corris may have a shot at a top spot in the 200 yd. event. The senior drove himself back into shape after a January seige with mononucleosis and stroked to a second in the Easterns.

Corris hit 2:17.2 at Yale. To finish high in the Nationals, he must drop down at least five or six seconds.

Captain-elect Alter finished 11th at Yale, and his chances for a big show aren't particularly good.