Abramson Sets New National Mark As Swimmers Top Dartmouth, 60-35

Sophomore Dave Abramson set Harvard pool, University, NCAA, and American records in the 500-yard freestyle event Saturday at the I.A.B., while leading the varsity swimming team to its 14th consecutive victory, a 60-35 triumph over Dartmouth.

Never challenged in the race, Abramson finished more than a pool length ahead of the second-place swimmer in brilliant time of 5:13.7. This erased the pool and University records of 5:26.0 and 5:21.5, which he set earlier this season.

A new event in the NCAA, the 500-yard freestyle replaces the old 440-yard swim. The best time submitted to the NCAA for a record so far this year has been a 5:16.8 by junior Lyn Straw of Yale. The fact that Abramson set his fine time virtually without competition makes the prospect of his meeting Straw in the Yale meet a genuinely exciting one.

The Crimson won nine of the meet's 11 events, losing only the 200-yard butterfly and the 400-yard freestyle relay. The varsity 400-yard medley relay team of John Pringle, Porky Pitts, Al Engelberg, and Arvid Groswald opened the contest by winning in the respectable time of 3:50.4. This was followed by a Crimson sweep of the 200-yard freestyle with Abramson leading Ed Seaton to the finish in a leisurely 1:58.6.

In the sprints, Crimson swimmers turned in promising times while sweeping both events. Elliot Miller sped to a 22.9 win in the 50, followed closely by Gregg Skalinder, while Captain Engelberg won the 100-yard freestyle ahead of Dave Brandling-Bennett in 50.3.

John Pringle, the varsity's "mechanical man," continued his unbeaten season in individual events by winning the back-stroke events, which Pringle usually swims. Bill Chadsey and Porky Pitts upheld the varsity honor, winning in 2:15.0 and 2:26.7, respectively.

The diving, which was off the one-meter board, was won by sophomore Dan Mahoney with an impressive 89.9 points. His gathering of a near-perfect nine and and an almost never-seen nine and one half would have been remarkable except for the wildly erratic scoring of the three judges, which ranged as much as four points on a single dive.

The freshman swimming team kept its unbeaten season going with a 64-31 swamping of the Dartmouth freshmen. They, too, won all but two events while sweeping four.

The varsity next sees action on Feb. 2 when they begin the second half of the season against Cornell.