'Cliffe Swimmers Top Holyoke, 69-35

The Radcliffe swimming team, expecting its toughest competition of the season, had little trouble disposing of Mt. Holyoke, 69-35, in a meet held Tuesday. In the process the team established five new Holyoke pool records.

The relay teams, which have done consistently well all year continued to improve, and both set pool records. In the 200-yd, medley relay, the team of RoAnn Costin, Mary Beth Thomaselli, Connie Cervilla, and Nancy Sato swam the distance in 2:03.5, their best time of the year. In the 200-yd freestyle relay, the team of Sato, Cervilla, Sinnot and Costin also bettered the Mt. Holyoke pool mark with a time of 1:53.2.

MaryBeth Thomaselli, a special transfer student from Vassar who was swimming her first meet of the season, had an outstanding day. Swimming the 50-yd, and 100-yd, breaststroke, Thomaselli established pool records in both, taking the first in 34.3 and the second in 1:13.6. She also swam a leg on the record-setting medley relay, and by swimming in the meet is eligible to participate in the Easterns in early March.

The fifth pool record was set by Connie Cervilla in the 50-yd, butterfly. Her time of 29.6 was just .4 off her best performance of the year.

Firsts by captain RoAnn Costin in the 200-yd, free, and Nancy Sato in the diving accounted for Radcliffe's other firsts in the meet.

Although the team did not lose a dual meet this season they will be decided underdogs at the Easterns to be held March 10 and 11 at Southern Connecticut College in New Haven, Conn. The squad will have to rely on its strength in the relays to do well. Looking ahead to the Easterns, coach Alice McCabe says she thinks the team will qualify in "all three relays: the 400-yd, medley, the 200-yd, medley, and the 200-yd, free."

New York Entries

Last year, New York teams did not compete at the Easterns because of a conflict with the N.Y. state championships, but this year they will participate and Westchester State, ranked second in the country, is the favorite. Springfield College, number one in New England and sixth in the country, also looks strong, as does the host school Southern Connecticut, second-ranked in New England.

Radcliffe is third-ranked in New England, and the chances are not very good that it can break into the top three.