...While Aquamen Suffer New Haven Washout...

The Yale swim team crowned coach Phil Moriarty's illustrious 17-year career with a stunning 64-49 victory over previously undefeated Harvard on Saturday in New Haven.

The Elis had a no-holds-barred approach to the meet as they shaved every swimmer and rallied before a vocal crowd of 2000 to win five of the last six events.

"We spotted them too much," Harvard coach Ray Essick said yesterday. "We spotted them the emotion, the crowd, and the shave. After that we couldn't take the meet."

The contest opened on an ominous note for the Crimson as the Yale 400 medley relay squad showed unexpected speed and blazed to a 3:31.9 victory. While it was doubtful that Harvard could have matched the Elis' time, the Crimson cause was not helped when Duncan Pyle had trouble with the ropes on the first turn.

Pyle brushed his face as he came up under one of the ropes and came almost to a complete standstill. After the incident, he finished the leg in 55.5 seconds. Brent Haywood and George Keim closed on their legs of the event but Yale sprinting star Hank Hook put the race away on the anchor leg.

Paco Canales won his specialty, the 1000 yard freestyle, with one of his best times, 9:45. Teammate Peter Tetlow, who swam well all day, placed third in the event. Tetlow came back later to win the 200 yard butterfly (1:56.7).

One of the highlights of the day for Harvard was the diving of senior Dave English. English proved himself the class of the diving as he won both the one and three meter events. Yale took the crucial second and third places in both competitions.

Harvard had more trouble with the ropes as Wes Raffel ran into one during the 200 freestyle and slowed down so much that he ended up in fourth place in the event.

Kevin O'Connell swam a fine 1:58.5 to win the 200 individual medley. Yale's Hook snagged another first in the 50 yard freestyle as he edged the Crimson's Tim Neville by a little over a tenth of a second in 21.38. Neville later won the 100 freestyle,

It was just about all downhill for the Crimson after Neville's victory, though. Eli Rick Eckerstrom dropped three seconds off his best time in the 200 backstroke to take the event. Harvard's Pyle placed third.

Bob Blattner bested both Crimson entries, Paco Canales and Peter Tetlow, to win the 500 in a blistering 4:42. Canales swam a fine 4:44 and Tetlow swam his season best time of 4:47.

The loss was Harvard's first in over three years and gave the Crimson a 7-1 record and the co-championship of the Eastern Swim League with Princeton. The Yale victory gave Moriarty an incredible career record of 195-25. The Elis were 7-6 on the season.

So it was not so much that Harvard swam poorly, but that Yale swam one of its best meets in years. Essick pointed out that the Crimson swimmers recorded 28 out of their 41 season best times against Yale and while "you have to give Yale the credit, we did very well under the circumstances and didn't give a single thing away."