Army Thunders by Aquamen

Don't worry.

The Harvard men's swimming team's 62-51 loss to Army at Blodgett Pool last night is no cause for alarm. It's much too early in the season to fret over EISL standings. Heck, the ECAC Championship doesn't roll around until the 1990s--light years away.

Wrong.

Even though Harvard (2-2 overall, 2-2 EISL) knew that Army (3-1 overall, 3-1 EISL) had both tapered and shaved for last week's romp over Navy, the Crimson was handed a few surprises.

Topping the list has to be Army's sweep of both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle sprints. Greg Sarakatsannis' time of 21.01 in the 50 and Al Anderson's 100-yard 45.65 headed an Army squad that marched to the top four spots in both races. Sarakatsannis also anchored two Army relay wins, the 400-yard medley and the 800-yard freestyle.

"We were rested and strong for Harvard, but I was surprised that their best sprinter couldn't beat our weakest," Sarakatsannis said.

"We set two goals this season. One was to finish in the top five in the ECAC, and the other to finish at least second in the EISL," Army Assistant Coach Ed Denny said. "Beating Harvard gives a big boost to this team's confidence."

The Cadets were relentless in their domination, garnering first place in every event except the 200-yard backstroke, the 200-yard breaststroke anddiving.

In the backstroke, it took a meet-record effortby Harvard's Paul Watson, who swam a 1:52.47 towin, breaking his own record set last year bynearly half a second.

In the breaststroke, no one had a prayer ofdenying Crimson senior Scott Hoy the gold. Hoy,competing in his final race at Blodgett, dashedthe field by finishing in 2:05.13, nearly fiveseconds faster than everyone else.

A nucleus of Harvard freshmen divers offers ahopeful turn to the future in the midst of Hoy'simpressive farewell. Led by Matt Paulson'sone-meter win with 267.825 points and a victory inthe three-meter by Bob McDermott (277.20), theCrimson swept both events.

"The divers helped keep this meet close,"Harvard diving Coach John Bransfield said. "Theyare a competitive group despite inexperience."

Other top Crimson finishers were Don Kidd,second in the 200-yard butterfly (1:54.10); KevinWilliams, second in the 500-yard freestyle(4:39.06) and the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.80);and Co-Captain Ken Johnston, who posted a time of16:10.61 for second place in a close 1650-yardfreestyle race