Harvard Aquamen Place Third Overall In Eastern Seaboard Championship

The Harvard swimming team retailed from its "Black Thursday" performance to finish third overall in the Eastern Seaboard Swimming Championships held in Hanover, N.H.; this weekend.

The Crimson aquamen suffered an unbelievable series of mishaps in the initial day of the meet on Thursday. The divers did poorly in the one-meter diving, the 200 individual medley was a disaster, and the 50 free was visited with bad luck.

"We really stank it up on our Black Thursday," a hoarse Harvard swimming coach Ray Easick said yesterday. "[Dave] Brumwell missed a turn in the IM and didn't qualify, Hess Yntema went out real fast in the event which he hasn't swum all year [the 200 IM] and faded at the end, and [George] Keim swam only in the consolation finals in the 50 free."

Turning Point

The 400-medley relay late Thursday was to be the turning point for the Crimson in the meet, however, as Tom Wolfe, Ted Pullerton, Yntema and Steve Baird teamed up to win the event in a new pool, meet, and Harvard record of 3:29.

Baird swam an amazing 46.0 in the last leg of relay, which, if it stood stone, would have set a new Harvard record.

Largely because of the victory in the medley relay, Harvard stood in sixth place instead of even worse, after one day of competition. But the rally which started with the relay was to be continued Friday and Saturday.

Friday's star was "outside smoker" Keim who swam in the sixth lane in the 100 fly to a 50.91 victory. Teammate Yntema finished season in the event.

Fullerion won the 100 breaststroke and Brumwell placed second to Princeton's amazing Curtis Hayden in the 400 IM. Duncan Pyle and Wolfe finished fourth and fifth respectively in the 100 backstroke to pick up more points as the Crimson scored more than 100 points on Friday to jump to third place overall.

In final day competition on Saturday, Wolf and Fullerton each won their specialties, the 200 back and breast respectively, and the Harvard owners scored more points than any other team in the three-meter diving.

Dave English placed sixth, Roger Johannigman seventh, and Mike Toal teat in the three-meter competition.

Record

Yntema set a new Harvard record in the 200 fly on Saturday (1:50.4) but finished second to North Carolina State's Steve Gregg, who won the event in a new meet record (1:50.3). Harvard also finished a good second behind N.C. State in the 400 free relay to cap off the scoring.

"I can never be happy with third," Essick said, "but I am with the individual performances, especially after the absolutely disastrous Thursday, I thought we did real well."