Swimmers Travel to Army for Easterns Today

The Harvard swimming team, its primary season objectives accomplished by an impressive 70-43 victory over Yale on Saturday and an excellent league championship 8-1 dual meet campaign, travels to West Point, N.Y., today for the three-day Eastern Seaboard Swimming Championships with high hopes of improving on last year's fifth place finish.

After turning in nine pool and eight Harvard record performances in thrashing the Elis for the first time since 1962, and tying Yale for the dual meet championship, the Crimson should be a strong contender for Eastern titles in a number of individual swimming events, but an overall lack of depth makes the possibility of a Harvard team championship appear slim.

Princeton, the pre-meet favorite last year after an undefeated championship season, finished a surprising second behind Yale at last year's meet in New Haven but is the favorite again this winter. The Tigers, despite losing to Yale and Dartmouth, have some of the best individual talent in the East in freestyler-backstroker Charlie Campbell and distance freestyler Curt Haydon.

Diving the Margin

More important, however, than its individual talent is Princeton's superior depth and diving strength. In fact living could be the margin of difference separating the Tigers from the rest of the field. Last year Princeton divers racked up nearly 80 points in the two diving events alone, and all of the top men from last season return.

The presence of a very strong squad from North Carolina St. at this year's meet should further complicate the battle among Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, and Harvard for the top four standings in the championships.

The four Ivy schools should dominate the scoring in most of the races but a number of the estimated 34 teams entered, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Cornell, and Navy, will score enough points to affect the final outcome to a greater or lesser degree.

Harvard's chances of finishing first, however, are not completely ruled out, although a Crimson championship would be an upset of even greater proportions that the win over Yale. In any case, the Crimson will score a great deal of points and should move up a notch or two closer to the top.

Shaved and Peaked

The Crimson's first place strength, which carried the team all season, will be severely tested this weekend as most of the Harvard swimmers presently ranked number one on the basis of previous times have already peaked and shaved a number of times thus far this season, while some of the others may drop several seconds when shaved.

The edge from shaving and peaking may have swung to the other schools who had no stake in the dual meet championship, but several Harvard swimmers still appear to have good shots at individual titles.

In the distance freestyles three-time Harvard record holder Rich Baughman, second in both the 500 and 1650-yd. freestyles to Princeton's Haydon at the Easterns last year, is again in contention. His 9:43.066 1000-yd. free at the Yale meet last Saturday was good for a number one ranking. He is presently ranked fourth in the 500 as well.

Captain Fred Mitchell, who had an outstanding afternoon against the Elis should give Harvard a strong 1-2 punch in the 500, where his is ranked second. He will have to battle Campbell in the 200-yd. free, along with Holum and Orland of Yale, whom he beat last Saturday, but should place high in the event. Mike Cook could surprise in the 200 as well if he improves at all on his excellent 1:44.7 clocking.

As in almost every race, Tim Neville will be the only Crimson entry in contention in the 50-yd. free where he will probably battle Navy's Rex Hand for individual honors. Neville is undefeated in the event this season and only hundredths of a second separate his second-ranked time from that of front-runner Hand. The dual could produce a very fast sub 21.0 clocking.

The 100-yd. freestyle is, as always, pretty wide open, but Neville could do extremely well in the event as well. His 47.448 time against Yale may be an indication of better things to come this weekend. Mitchell, if he swims the race, could place.

Moving to the specialty strokes, Harvard has some good scoring potential in every race. Dave Brumwell, undefeated in the 200-yd. breast, is ranked number one in the event, and when he shaves this weekend he could be unbeatable. Brumwell is also number one ranked in the 200-yd. individual medley, and he could take another first there.

The 200-yd. backstroke should be all Charlie Campbell of Princeton, as the NCAA champion should win easily. Tom Wolfe, ranked second, must face a tough experienced field, but he could place high in the event.

Hess Yntema, perhaps the most talented swimmer to come to Harvard since world-record holder Steve Krause, holds down the top spot in the 200-yd. butterfly as he has all season, but his first place chances might be jeopardized by the fact that he is waiting to shave down until the Nationals at Knoxville, Tenn. a week from now. John Craig will have to drop another second or two to score in the event.

The three relays should be an area of Harvard strength. The 400-yd. medley is presently ranked third, but a number one team has yet to be assembled and it is anybody's guess where it will end up in the final.

The 400-yd. free relay contingent holds down second place ranking, and could place anywhere in the top five, while the 800-yd. free quartet has definite first-place possibilities.

"We're going into a championship meet without much depth, and the team with depth starts moving up in a meet of this kind," head coach Don Gambril said Tuesday. "We're going hopefully to improve on last year's fifth place finish, and we'd like to win some events." The way the team has performed thus far this season, these goals seem to be quite within Harvard's reach.