Aquamen Still Lead Easterns

The Harvard men's swimming and diving teams continued to dominate the Eastern Championships at Blodgett last night, capturing three first-place and three second-place finishes in eight events.

Before the last event, the 800-yard freestyle relay, Harvard led second-place Princeton by 75 points.

But with an impressive 1:37.14 leg, Tiger anchor Naiden Kremenlier--who also captured the 200 free for the third year straight with 1:37.31--powered Princeton's relay to a 6:35.52 finish. Harvard's Rick Osterberg, Jan Esway, Steve Root and Co-Captain Dave Knauert came in second with 6:37.36.

"We still have a 60 or 70 point lead, and tomorrow is traditionally our strongest day," senior Co-Captain Ed Owen said last night.

Not that the Crimson had anything to be ashamed about: other than the 100-yard breaststroke, which featured junior Rich Ouastonishing the crowd with a third place finish from lane 1, at least two Harvard swimmers competed in the championship race in every event.

In the 400-yard individual medley, Harvard junior John Blaney left everyone speechless--including himself--with a time of 3:55.53, two and a half seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Yale's leb Slowik.

"I really don't know what to say." Blaney said, grinning. "I guess felt pretty confident that I'd do well but not well enough to win."

In the 100 yard butterfly, Knauert exploded with a :48.97 finish--almost matching the NCAA qualifying time of :48.23. Junior Sean Gouldson stole the 100 back with a :49.44, while Knauert finished sixth for Harvard in the same event.

Senior Ed Wagner--"a ridiculously fast man," according to several of his teammates--swam an astounding "19.35 leg in the 200 medley relay, but the team's time of 1:29.72 wasn't enough to beat Princeton's 1:29.32 finish.

Junior Craig Narveson racked up a second-place finish in the 3 meter springboard with 538.05 points, easily topping the NCAA qualifying score of 480.