Swimmers Finish Fifth At Easterns

A superbly coached, fired-up Yale swimming team overhauled Princeton, which had led for most of the three day meet, to take a well-deserved team victory in the Eastern Seaboard Swimming Championship which ended Saturday at Yale. Harvard, breaking 11 University records, finished a strong fifth.

The come-from-behind win by the Elis stunned the Tigers, who had dominated the first two days of the competition. Yale, which remained a close second to Princeton both Thursday and Friday, pulled ahead early on the final day, 260-242, and hung on for the rest of the evening to win with 365 points to Princeton's 353. The Tigers, on the strength of an outstanding weekend by freshmen Curtis Haydon and Charlie Campbell who set three new meet records apiece, needed a first in the final event--the 400-yd, freestyle--to tie Yale.

But the Elis free relay team, a Yale trademark, swam a beautiful race to edge the Tigers and win the meet. Yale captain Bob Kasting swam an excellent 45.7 final leg, but Campbell, finishing with a fast 45.5, was unable to give the Tigers the victory they desperately needed.

11 Records

The Crimson, virtually ignored by the spectators concentrating on Yale, the home team, and Princeton, the cheerleading academy, recorded one of the best weekends in Harvard swimming history. Harvard broke a phenomenal 11 school records on route to a very respectable 169 points and fifth place overall.

On Thursday, Harvard started strong with two new record performances, and 48 points. Rich Baughman, who was later to set a second mark on Saturday, dethroned teammate Fred Mitchell to take the 500-yd. crown with a time of 4:42.581, taking second behind Haydon of Princeton. In the 200-yd. individual medley. Dave Brumwell broke the first of three school-records with a 1:59.628, taking ninth overall.

But the Crimson continued to perform very well on Friday night, as it set three more records. Again a Harvard swimmer broke a record in the first event of the evening, as Brumwell, who broke records all three days, set a new standard of 4:16,994 in the 400-yd. IM. Mitchell lowered his own 200-yd. free record, swimming a 1:44,323 in the afternoon heats, and taking a fifth in the finals.

Harvard, which added 50 points on the second day, took its third record in the 800-yd. free relay, as the team of Mitchell, Baughman, Jim Davis and Steve Baird recorded a time of 7:08,022 in the afternoon heats and a sixth place in the evening finals.

Saturday, which was the Crimson's best day, saw five Harvard records fall in a flurry of great races. The evening began with another record, as Baughman, unable to overtake Haydon in the 1650-yd. free, swam a strong second to record a new school mark of 16:16.3.

Freshman Tim Neville, who tied the 50-yd. freestyle mark on Thursday, had an outstanding night as he set two records and helped to set another. Shattering the 100-yd. free mark in the afternoon prelims with a 47.407 clocking by Yale's electronic timer. Neville took fifth in the final. Later he set a new standard in the 100-yd. butterfly of 51.8, and moments after that swam a very fast 47.0 leg on the relay team which, you guessed it, established yet another Harvard record of 3:11,986.

It was an extremely satisfying three days for coach Don Gambril as the team performed near perfection in an overwhelming majority of races it entered. In events where the Crimson falled to set new records it invariably swam its best times, and only Camphell and Haydon prevented Harvard from taking firsts in at least two races.

"I've never had a team perform so close to 100 per cent as this one," Gambril said. "We had close to 90 per cent best swims in this meet, and that just doesn't happen very often." When asked during the last evening about his team's showing he said rhetorically, "How could they be better?"

Gambril, for one, hopes that things are going to get a lot better as he plans to make a strong move next year towards the top of Eastern swimming, a position that Yale coach Phil Moriarty, with his victory this weekend, still holds tenaciously.