'Cliffe Second to UNH in Invitational; Downey Sets Individual Medley Mark

Though the University of New Hampshire captured first place, Radcliffe finished a close second in the Fourteenth Annual Radcliffe Invitational Swimming Championships held Saturday afternoon at the Indoor Athletic Building.

Wellesley, Dartmouth, the University of Rhode Island, and Boston College also participated in the meet, which was, in the words of Radcliffe coach Stephanie Johnson, "well organized and highly successful."

UNH, sinking Radcliffe three weeks ago in Durham, was simply too overpowering to be denied. Specializing in the short race, they competed in a meet which featured no race over 200 meters long.

"Ever since UNH, we'd been working on sprints," said swim captain Maureen Murphy. "The practice showed in our times, which really improved," she added, "but UNH was just too strong."

Prepared For Long Races

"A lot of schools aren't prepared for the longer races, as we are," explained Murphy. "If this meet had been geared for the longer stuff, we would have done better," she said.

Although UNH finished with 339 total points while Radcliffe fell short with 316, the meet itself was fairly close all the way.

Radcliffe was actually in the lead through the first nine of the total thirteen events. "We were ahead until the 50-meter butterfly," commented coach Johnson afterwards, "but they posted three swimmers in the top eight as opposed to our one. Although we were one, two in both breaststroke races, it was still not enough to offset their strong finish."

Wellesley was a distant third with 225 total points while Dartmouth (208) and the University of Rhode Island (155) finished fourth and fifth. Boston College sunk to last place with only 22 total points.

Individually, 'Cliffe captain Maureen Murphy had perhaps her best racing day to date. She finished third in the 200 meter freestyle (2:20.11), fifth in the 50 meter freestyle (28.73), and fourth in the 100 meter freestyle (1:03.01).

"Maureen was fantastic," said coach Johnson. "We had to put her in shorter races but she still had her best times in everything she ran. Next to Laurie, she had the best split time," she added.

Sophomore Laurie Downie turned in yet another stellar performance. She led Radcliffe to first place in the 200 meter medley relay (2:02.77), swept the 100 meter individual medley (1:05.58), and finished second by .2 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke (1:05.46). Her time in the individual medley set a new pool and Radcliffe team record, breaking the old mark of 1:08.7.

In other individual scoring for Radcliffe, Nancy Danoff (36.1) and Carol Moore (36.5) finished one, two in the 50--meter breaststroke. Later, they came back to claim the 100 meter breaststroke as well (Moore, 1:20.08 and Danoff, 1:22.61). Reed Sutherland took second in the 100 meter butterfly with an impressive 1:10.87 clocking.

Coach Stephanie Johnson was understandably pleased with her team's performance. As her swimmers improve, the times continue to fall at a steady rate.

"We sort of hoped to have more girls place in fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth place," she said. "Instead, they placed more in ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. But the times are improving with each meet. Our relay times were bested by as much as 7 seconds," she said.

"It just shows that the quality of the meet was pretty good," she added.