Crimson Trails at Easterns While Tigers Surge Ahead

Freshman wonderboy Bobby Hackett smashed his second meet record in two days and fellow Yardling Michael Coglin grabbed another individual event, but the Harvard swim team fell behind powerhouse Princeton anyway in the second day of competition in the Eastern Seaboard Championships at Brown yesterday.

Coglin, a stellar freshman distance swimmer whose fantastic performances this season have been somewhat overshadowed by those of the phenomenal Mr. Hackett, put on quite a show of his own in last night's first event, the 400-yd. individual medley. Coglin streaked to victory with a time of 4:04.27, which qualifies him for the NCAA Championships at Long Beach, California, later this month.

Hackett, who shattered the meet record in the 500-yd. freestyle on Thursday night, repeated the feat in last night's 200-yd. freestyle, winning in 1:38.90. Teammate Julian Mack, another freshman, finished ninth in that event with a 1:42.73 clocking.

But Princeton, who trailed the Crimson by 16 points after Thursday's action, did some spectacular swimming of their own as they jumped ahead of Harvard by a 226-210 count. Columbia is presently in third with 130 points.

The Tigers turned in the performance of the evening, if not the meet, in the 800-yd. freestyle relay. The Princeton foursome of Tim Sullivan, Howard Nelson, Andy Saltzman and Andy O'Hara obliterated the meet record set by last year's Princeton squad by more than eight full seconds as they sailed to victory in 6:41.68. Harvard's team of Malcolm Cooper, Mack, Coglin and Hackett, the favorites in the event, bettered the meet record by a full five seconds themselves en route to finishing second in 6:44.05. Much to everyone's surprise, Princeton's sky-high O'Hara split a 1:38.00 compared to Hackett's 1:38.98 in the anchor leg.

Princeton, which has won the meet for the last five years in a row, also dominated the 100-yd. breastroke and butterfly. In the breast, won by Dartmouth's Tom Whitaker in 58.92, two Princeton men made the finals--John Christensen (second) and Chuck Hector (sixth). The lone Harvard qualifier in that event was Tuomo Kerola, who finished eighth in 1:00.06.

Tiger sophomore superstar Bill Specht successfully defended his championship in the butterfly, as he dolphin-kicked home in a blazing 49.69.

The Crimson looked very strong in the 100-yd. backstroke, placing three men in the top six. Steady freshman standout Geoff Seelen qualified for NCAAs as he landed third place with a time of 52.71. Malcolm Cooper (53.23) took fourth and co-captain Duncan Pyle (53.61) finished sixth in the race, which was won by Navy's Mark Heinrich.

So the Crimson go into today's final round, which should be a barnburner, trailing by 16, the same amount they led by 24 hours ago. Harvard has the advantage in the 1650-yd. free, where Hackett and Coglin should finish at worst first and fourth; in the three-meter diving, where Harvard's four divers--led by high-board specialist Mike Toal--all could make the finals; and in the 200-yd. backstroke.