Aquamen Dunk Feisty Quakers, 63-50

The Harvard men's swimming team extended its current winning streak to 12 this weekend, but only by the scantest of margins. For reasons of economy sending only nine swimmers and a diver to face the Penn Quakers, the aquamen saw the meet go down to the final relay before pulling out a 63-50 win.

Going into the final event of the day, the Crimson held a 56-50 lead. With the 400-yd. freestyle relay worth seven points, winner take all, a Penn victory would have given the Quakers the meet. The Harvard team of Mike Miao, Bobby Hackett, Larry Countryman and Jon Sappey came through with a win to keep the Crimson's season dual meet record unblemished.

With only nine swimmers to spread among 11 events, the aquamen needed multiple wins from a number of people. In addition to their legs on the winning relay, Sappey and Hackett each won two individual events, as did Ben Downs.

Downs picked up his first win of the day in the 400-yd. -individual medley, qualifying for the Eastern Seaboard Championships in the process. Also qualifying for the Easterns in the same race were teammates Countryman and Julian Bott. Later in the meet, when things were really beginning to tighten up, Downs made his second trip to the winner's circle by saving off two Quakers in the 500-yd. freestyle.

Although he didn't win either of his events, perhaps the most impressive performance of the day came from diver Jack Ingari. The only member of the Crimson diving corps to make the trip, Ingari had to work without the aid of diving coach John Walker (who had to be at Brown for the women's Ivy League Championships), but still came through with a lifetime best of 206.7 to place second on the one-meter board.

Looking for the Few and the Brave

Another key performance, but one that almost didn't materialize, was Tom Royal's win in the 200-yd. breaststroke. Somewhat confused over the order of events, Royal was found at the other end of the pool warming up when the call to the blocks for his race came. With Harvard in some danger of losing the meet that this point, coach Joe Bernal quickly gave Royal a personal escort to the starting blocks. Penalized one false start for his tardiness, the Crimson breaststroker had to remain clam at the start as each of the three Penn swimmers in turn tried to draw him off and get him to disqualify himself. Finally the race got underway, and the Leverett House junior cruised to an easy win.

THE NOTEBOOK: When Sappey beat teammate Bott to the wall in the 200-yd. backstroke, it marked the Englishman's first loss in North America in that event. Because he had already swum three events and was only an unofficial entry in the race, however, Bott argues that his showing does not count and leaves his record unblemished... The second event of the afternoon was supposed to be the 1000-yd. freestyle, but Hackett, Countryman and Ted Chappell decided that they needed some practice in the 1650-yd. free as well. Thus after finishing 1-2-3 in the official race, the Crimson trio went on to swim the extra 650 yds. to see how they could do.