Harvard Aquamen Torpedo Navy, 74-39

Tora! Tora! Tora! was the Friday night movie that most of the swim team watched from their Annapolis motel on the evening before their Pearl Harbor Anniversary Weekend meet with Navy.

The movie inspired the team's pre-meet cheer ("Go Harvard, Tora! Tora! Tora! Beat Navy") and probably inspired them to go on and bomb the Mid-shipmen, 74-39.

From the opening gun, Harvard began its onslaught on the Middies. Duncan Pyle blazed a 54.7 opening backstroke lap in the 400 medley relay as the Crimson glided to victory in the event and to a lead (7-0) that wasn't to be caught.

Harvard senior Dave English, in what was one of the outstanding performances of the day, dove to first places in the one-meter diving events, besting Navy star Rusty Eckstrom who came in second both times.

Since Navy's pool is too shallow to conduct a three-meter competition, the first diving event was compulsory one-meter dives and the second round was optional diving. "I don't think we've ever seen Dave put together eleven dives the way he did Saturday," Harvard coach Ray Essick said yesterday.

Paco Canales and Peter Tetlow took first and second in the 1000-yard freestyle. Canales covered the distance in 9:57.9 in what was described as a tactical race meant to grab the points but also to save up for the big meet with Army this weekend.

Tim Neville, who swam in his first intercollegiate meet in two years, shot to a 21.6, which was good for first place in the 50-yard freestyle. Neville did not swim in the 100, but teammates George Keim and Malcolm Cooper swam to a first and third place in the event. Last year the Navy sweep of both sprinting events was a key to the Middies coming as close as they did to winning the meet.

The Crimson also took the top two spots in the 200 IM. 200 butterfly, and 200 breaststroke. Kevin O'Connell and Brent Haywood swam neck and neck to take first and second in the IM. O'Connell finished a scant .06 second in front of Haywood at 2:01.80.

John Craigand Peter Tetlow came in 1-2 in the 200 fly while Haywood and Ted Fullerton finished firstand second in the 200 breast. Co-captain Fullerton had been in the water barely two weeks since a bout with mononucleosis but swam well enough to nab second.

Pyle glided to an easy 2:01.4 win in the 200 backstroke that put the meet out of reach of the Midshipmen with several events left to go. So in the last event, the Harvard coaches split the 400 free relay teams to even them out as well as possible and to let them race against each other. To make things interesting, each man on the relay put up a pint of ice cream on the outcome of the race.

The ice cream relay turned out to be very close (one tenth of a second) with Craig, Neville, Mark Depman and Canales each collecting a pint of ice cream for dessert.

"We were better than we thought we would be," Essick said yesterday. "Navy was really disappointed in how they performed compared to their training so far. But what a great way to start off the season for us."