Crimson Swim Teams Win; Submarine Brown

The Harvard men's swim team bid a quiet farewell to the Indoor Athletic Building pool last night by unceremoniously disposing of a wimpering crew of Bruins from Providence, 71-42.

Despite the presence of reporters from The Boston Globe and Boston Herald American and cameras from Channel 7 News hoping to witness the latest exploits of Harvard freshman sensation Bobby Hackett, the Crimson provided little entertainment as they needed only a marginal effort to bury the surprisingly weak Brown team.

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British freshman Michael Coglin led the Crimson triumph by cruising to a pair of easy victories in the 500- and 1000-yd. freestyles. He turned in one of the few really impressive swims of the evening with his time of 4:40.39 in the 500, just missing the pool record by less than a second.

Harvard diver Jamie Greacen provided the sparse reading-period crowd with its biggest thrill with his spectacular performance in the optional diving event, which he won with an impressive cumulative score of 335.15. Greacen's soaring airborne acrobatics elicited the only wild cheers from a crowd that endured an otherwise dull meet.

One final moment of interest came in the last event of the evening, the 400-yd. freestyle relay, when Hackett entered the water for the first time to swim the opening leg in a challenge match against fellow freshman standout Julian Mack. Hackett, who touched out his mammouth teammate, recorded a time of 46.8, which broke the pool record in the final event to be swum there by the Harvard team.

"I was a little disappointed that they chose to leave one of their top swimmers home for this meet," Crimson coach Joe Bernal commented afterwards. He was referring to Chris Hug, the Bruins' premier butterflier and distance man, who did not make the trip because of his studies.

Hug's presence would have had little effect on the outcome, however. Harvard jumped out to a 7-0 lead that they never relinquished, as co-captain Duncan Pyle, Lorren Elkins, Malcolm Cooper and Mack coasted home to win the medley relay in the not-quite awe-inspiring time of 3:40.17.

Harvard never looked back after that, winning eight of the next eleven events without even swimming its top lineup. The Crimson got the usual steady performances from stalwarts Malcolm Cooper, who dominated the field in the 50-yd. freestyle as he has all season, Paco Canales in the 200-yd. free, Steve Schramm in the required diving, Dan Menichella in the 200 butterfly and Geoff Seelen in the 200 backstroke--all of whom were winners.

"It's a little difficult for us to try to generate proud enthusiasm for a team that knows they're not competitive," Bernal concluded, adding, "At this point we're going to begin to concentrate that effort on Princeton."

The Crimson have a final tune-up for their February 4th showdown with the Tigers this Saturday in Hanover.