Aquamen Nuke Cadets, 78-35

With the completeness of Sherman's seige of Atlanta, the Harvard men's swimming team bombarded the U.S., Military Academy, 78-35, Saturday in the Crimson's Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League home opener at Blodgett Pool.

The aquamen took 12 of 13 first-place finishes-surrendering only the 400 freestyle relay to the Cadets-with most of the squad bypassing their strongest events and junior co-captain Larry Countryman swimming only relays.

Sophomore sprinter Mike Miao led the charge with double victories in the 50 and 100 freestyles. The Los Angeles native exploded off the turn at 25 yards to take the 50 in 20.86.

In the 100, Miao churned to a new Harvard record, clocking a 45.55 for the four lengths--a very quick early-season performance.

"I think one year's experience has made a big difference in Mike," coach Joe Bernal said Saturday, adding that Miao "is in better control and understands his training program better, as evidenced by the swims today."

In diving, freshman Dan Watson set two new Harvard and Blodgett Pool records in winning both the one-meter and three-meter events. On the lower board, the yardling racked up 338.70 points to lead teammates Karl Illig and John Lightfoot in a sweep of that event.

Watson out-bounced junior Jeff Mule, last year's Eastern champ on the three-meter, with 395.35 points in five dives on that board. The NCAA record for the 11-dive list required in championship meets is 608.10, held by Greg Louganis, and any Math concentrator can tell you that Watson was averaging higher marks per dive Saturday.

Coach John Walker Saturday called Watson, "the catalyst of our team. He could have gone over 400 but he blew his reverse two and one half," Walker said, adding that "we can expect a solid performance from him at the NCAA Championships and his position there will depend on how well other competitors dive."

In the 400 freestyle relay--the only event the Cadets captured-the aquamen divided into three House relays, two from Eliot and one from Quincy. Q-worlders Jack Gauthier, Julian Bott, Dave Phillips, and Jim Carbone finished behind Army, but downed the Eliot "A" and "B" teams with a 3:13.45 clocking.

And then, there was Bob Hrabchak. The freshman from Watertown, N.Y., entered every event in Saturday's meet unofficially to win the year's "Iron Man" award. In completing the marathon, the yardling swam a total of 5850 yards, including six 500 freestyles to stay loose during the two diving breaks. "One of the hardest things about it," Hrabchack said yesterday, "was getting used to being beaten all the time."

THE NOTEBOOK: On December 27, the aquamen will board a flight with members of the Bernal's Gators swim team for sunny Mexico City and three-a-day workouts at the site of the 1968 Olympic Games. Mixed with the training, the aquamen will swim against the Mexican National Team.