Aquamen Conquer Explorers, 64-49; Kornish, Peltier, Lutz Lead Crimson

The Harvard men's swimming team traveled to the City of Brotherly Love for a meet with LaSalle last night.

And the host Explorers were more than gracious to their guests from Cambridge, as the Crimson emerged from Kirk Pool in Philadelphia with a well-earned 64-49 victory in front of 50 spectators.

The non-league win pushes Harvard's record to 6-2 overall (5-2 ECAC, 4-1 Ivy League) going into today's contests at Penn.

Last night's meet was expected to be a close one, as LaSalle finished in fourth place at the 1986 Eastern Championships. And--living up to expectations--the two squads battled back and forth for much of the meet before the Crimson was able to pull away in the final events.

After the 200-yd. butterfly, with seven of the 13 races swum, the Explorers managed to take a one-point lead, 31-30. But consecutive Harvard victories--highlighted by a one-two-three sweep in the 200 backstroke--wrapped up the meet just before the final event.

The Crimson jumped on the scoreboard first by capturing the first event, the 400 medley relay. Jeff Peltier, Jim Lutz, Bill Bird and Jim Kornish teamed up to beat the LaSalle relay and take a 7-0 lead.

For Kornish, a senior, the first-place showing in the medley relay would be the first of two in the meet. The Carlisle, Penn., native--perhaps inspired by a return to his home state--also grabbed the gold as part of the 400 freestyle relay and pulled off an impressive third-place showing in the 200 individual medley.

Peltier was also able to snag a double-win evening. In addition to the medley relay, he also touched out teammate (and roommate) David Berkoff in the 200 backstroke, finishing in 1:53.03, just ahead of Berkoff's 1:53.31.

But Berkoff, another Pennsylvanian back on home soil, did not settle for just a close second. The junior snagged the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:52.81, and swam in Harvard's winning 400 freestyle relay with Kornish, Keith Kaplan and Chris Smith.

Besides the relay, Kaplan had a first-place showing in the 100 freestyle with a time of 46.53 seconds. He was almost a triple. winner in the meet, but was just touched out in the 200 freestyle by LaSalle's Mike Travers, 1:43.40 to 1:43.65.

The final Crimson individual victory came in the 500 freestyle as junior John Pearson finished on top in a close three-man race. Down by one-half of a body length with 25 yards remaining, Pearson came back to defeat the Explorers' Jeff Gershe and teammate John Ritch.

In the 1000 freestyle, Gershe set a LaSalle team record with his winning time of 9:19.70, edging out Pearson.

The only other highlights for the home team came in the two diving events, when the Explorers' John Madden--no relation to the famous big-splash diver and sports announcer--notched the top spot in both the one-and three-meter boards. Sophomore Pat Healy of Harvard placed second in both competitions.