Aquamen Leave Quakers Sputtering, 80-22

Bus rides home are always shorter after victories.

After enduring somber return trips from West Point and Princeton, the Harvard men's swimming team finally was able to cruise home in style following an 80-22 victory over Penn at Sheerr Pool in Philadelphia Saturday.

The win over the Quakers completed a two-meet Crimson road sweep over Pennsylvania opponents, as Harvard (now 7-2 overall, 6-2 ECAC, 5-1 Ivy League) also defeated LaSalle on Friday night, 64-49.

The Crimson had dropped its previous two road meets to Army and Princeton, and with the Eastern Championships only 10 days away, the trip to the Keystone State proved a boost for both the squad and Coach Joe Bernal.

"I'm particularly pleased with the direction that the team has taken," Bernal said. "We're improving and swimming faster, which is a good sign heading into Easterns."

The Penn meet was never close, as Harvard jumped out to a lead of 28-6 after four events and never looked back. Once the victory was well in hand, Bernal moved many of his swimmers into other events, enabling some of them to qualify for Easterns.

Sophomore Keith Kaplan helped to pace the Crimson, along with junior Bill Bird and freshman Jim Lutz. Kaplan took first place in two individual events and one relay, snagging the 50 and 100-yd. freestyle races.

He also teamed up with Dave Berkoff, Lutz, and Kresimir Peharda as Harvard's 400 medley relay team placed on top of the field.

Bird proved superior in both the 200 freestyle and the 200 butterfly, finishing the butterfly even over three seconds ahead of the next competitor. Lutz, meanwhile, was golden in the 200 individual medley and the 200 breaststroke, in addition to the medley relay.

Junior Jeff Peltier proved unbeatable in the 200 backstroke, cruising to victory in a time of 1:53.31. Chris Smith also was a winner, touching first in 500 freestyle, narrowly defeating Penn's Mike Cuccaro by a margin of only .62 seconds.

In the 400 freestyle relay, Smith, John Ritch, Peharda and Jay Fisher combined to snare the final event of the meet for the Crimson.

In diving, sophomore Pat Healy sailed on both boards, taking both the one- and three-meter competitions by a large combined margin of 95 points.

Next on tap for the aquamen will be a meet on Saturday against archrival Yale at Blodgett Pool, with another contest the following day versus Boston University. The next time the Crimson leaves Cambridge, the team will be bound for West Point in search of its ninth straight Eastern crown.