Aquamen Grab 28th In NCAA Swim Meet

It took three months for the Harvard men's swimming team to defeat archrival Princeton in a meet. The Crimson finally accomplished the task this weekend at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Indianapolis, Ind.

After dropping two close decisions to the Tigers earlier in the season--a dual meet and the Eastern Championships--Harvard grabbed 12 points in the three-day NCAA meet, good for a 28th-place finish nationally. Princeton finished six spots behind the Crimson with 7.5 points.

The University of Texas took the overall team title, pulling away from second-place Southern Cal and third-place Stanford on the final day of competition. With the victory, the Longhorns snapped Stanford's three-year reign in the national meet.

Harvard was represented by senior Co-Captain Chris Smith, junior Keith Kaplan, sophomore Mark Shagena and freshman Scott Jaffe. Each swimmer earned honorable mention All-America standing for his performance. In addition, three Crimson records fell during the meet.

Jaffe led the way for the aquamen, scoring in two individual events. The Lexington native also posted the team's best split in its record-setting 400-yd. freestyle relay.

The Beat

"Scott showed a great deal of strength in his first national collegiate competition," Kaplan said. "He was under a great deal of pressure there but turned in a spectacular job."

Jaffe's best performance came in the 200 individual medley, where he swiped an 11th-place finish with a time of 1:48.93. During the morning trials, the Yardling posted a faster time of 1:48.92, breaking the existing school mark held by David Berkoff.

Jaffe also finished 13th in the 200 breaststroke, besting Scott Hoy's old team best with a 2:00.34 time. In his final event, the 200 freestyle, Jaffe took the 17th spot, missing the consolation final heat by .06 of a second.

Kaplan, Jaffe, Shagena and Smith teamed up for 16th place overall in the 400 freestyle relay. Not only was the quartet's trial time of 2:59.25 good for a new school record, but it also marked the best time for the event in Eastern history.

Super

The NCAA meet marked the final competition for Smith, who ended his career with the record-setting relay performance.

"The team will really be different without Chris," Kaplan said. "He swam a great last race, but it will be tough not having him around next year."

The other three aquamen will return to competition next season, where they will be joined by Berkoff, last year's NCAA 100 backstroke champion. Currently, Berkoff is taking time off from Harvard to train for the 1988 Summer Olympic Games.