Crimson Swimmers Down Army, 68-45

In what amounted to a final practice before departing for a two week training trip to the Canary Islands, the Harvard swimming team easily polished off its second military opponent in a row downing Army by a deceptively close 68-45 margin.

The rout was, in substance, a carbon copy of last Saturday's 69.44 thrashing of Navy. Both times the Crimson jumped out to a commanding lead early and coasted the rest of the afternoon. The cadets provided a little more competition than the Midshipmen, however, winning a pair of swimming events and both dives and swimming better than anticipated.

As expected head coach Don Gambril shuffled his lineup for the contest putting several swimmers in off events and that number of instances testing those who felt slightly under the weather as a result of the tiring bus trip to West Point Captain Fred Mitchell who last week swim the 100 and 200yd freestyles moved up to the 500 and 1000yd. distances winning both easily.

Rich Baughman, University record holder in the 500, 1000 and 1650 moved down to the 200yd free and won that event easily despite a slight strep throat. Three-time record-holder Dave Brumwell abandoned his specialties. the breast stroke and IM, but failed to take an individual first, finishing second in the 200-yd. back, and third in the 200-yd. fly.

Outstanding Strokes

With the ability of the above to swim so called off events and win the performer of freshman Hess Yntema possibly the most versatile swimming on the team was particularly outstanding Yntema who is strong in just about all of the freestyle distance returned to his specialties the butterfly and the IM and had an excellent afternoon.

After recording a fine 51.7 fly leg on the opening medley relay he came back to swim a sets good 2:00.9 200-yd. IM a little more than a second off Brumwell's school record Yntema saved the best for last, however is he bettered the University record for the 200yd fly with an excellent 1:56.4 clocking. The time erased John Munk's 1969 standard of 1:56.8.

Gambril's swimmers now hold all but 2 of the 17 University records, and most will be broken again in the next three months, when the Crimson face far more powerful opponents such as Dartmouth, Princeton, Penn and Yale. The relatively mediocre times turned in by Harvard's top swimmers in the last two meets are of very little importance, since Gambril has freely acknowledged looking past the first two meets to the crucial Eastern showdowns yet to come.

The Canary trip which began immediately after the Army time up could put Harvard into the contender category. A win over Darmouth after the trip's conclusion could make the season a successful one but either way the records are going to start to fall.