Aquamen Hold Second in Easterns

Great empires do not die gradually. Their fall from power is usually swift.

The Harvard men's swimming team has long been the king of the hill in the Eastern swimming world. The last time the Crimson failed to win the Eastern Seaboard Championships was in 1978.

Since then, Harvard has taken eight straight Eastern meets, equalling the record set by Yale from 1963-'70. This year, the squad had hoped to stand alone with nine.

But after the first day of the Eastern Championships at West Point, N.Y., last night the Crimson finds itself an also-ran, 98 points behind Princeton.

And while there are two days left in the meet, Harvard is faced with an uphill climb of unequalled proportions.

With a performance like last night's, however, the Tigers deserve to be the champions. Of the five events, Princeton swimmers won three. And the first two were the killers.

Princeton easily took the 400-yd medley relay, finishing over one second ahead of a Harvard team that won the event last year.

And in the first individual event--the 500 freestyle--what was always a Crimson stronghold became a gauntlet of punishment, as Princeton placed first, second, third, and fourth overall. The highest Harvard finisher was John Pearson, who grabbed sixth.

Nevertheless, two Harvard team records were broken, including one from 1979--ironically, the year that the Crimson snapped the Tiger's Eastern streak at six. In the 50 freestyle, sophomore Keith Kaplan placed third with a 20.7 time. But in the trials, Kaplan finished in 20.50,.17 faster than Malcolm Cooper's 20.67.

Junior David Berkoff lowered his own school record in the 100 backstroke to 48.41 in his backstroke leg of the Harvard medley relay. Berkoff is now only .2 above the American record in the event, and has another chance at breaking the mark tonight.

Berkoff also earned second place in the 200 individual medley, the highest individual finish for a Crimson swimmer so far. Still, he was unable to catch Richard Hughes of Princeton, who gave the Tigers their third first-place finish of the night. Senior Jim Kornish claimed seventh in the 200 i.m. for the Crimson as well.

In the one-meter diving, Princeton grabbed second and eighth, stealing an easy 28 points from Harvard, whose diver, Pat Healy, was not selected as one of the 18 Eastern team members.

Despite the fact that the team fell to the Tigers in a dual meet, 78-34, only one month ago, last night's results must have come as a big shock to the Crimson. Harvard has lost the big dual meet to its rival from Jersey for the past three years, but was always able to recover in time for Easterns.

But if the Big Crimson Swimming Machine has any chance of getting back in gear, it must do so tonight. With strong events like the 100 backstroke on the slate, it could do so.