Swimming Team Bows to Green's New Juggernaut

Dartmouth swimming coach Karl Michael had just taken a dunking, fully-clothed, in the IAB pool Saturday after-noon and a broad grin creased his dripping face. "We've been aiming for this moment for a long time, for eight years," he was saying, "and you better believe this is a sweet day."

Michael's powerful Indian swimmers had just mauled Harvard, 57-38, the first Crimson home loss to the Big Green in history. Dartmouth took eight firsts in 11 events, and broke six records, including one Harvard pool record.

The single most destructive Indian was sophomore wonder Al Petersen who smashed five records in the backstroke and the individual medley, including 1963 Yale star Bill Townsend's pool standard for the medley.

There were lots of other Big Green heroes--junior Brad Lindeblad won both the 50 and 100-yd. freestyle races; sophomore Carl Robinson churned through the 200-yd. freestyle in 1:48.1 to set a new varsity record.

For the Crimson, bright spots were few and disappointments many. Pete Adams and Dick Smith swent the 500-yd. freestyle and Bill Murphy turned in two clutch spinners to snare the dive, but, aside from a last gasp victory in the freestyle relay, these were Harvard's only wins.

You got an idea of the kind of day it was going to be when the Indians swam to a quick 20-5 lead after the first three events. But hope was still eternal.

Two Crimson aces, Bob Corris and Bill Shrout, stood poised on the blocks for the medley. A sweep and the meet was still on. And then Peterson sped to his 2:03.2 record clocking.

As the meet progressed, the score mounted steadily against the Crimson. Shrout, the Harvard record holder, finished third in the 100 free. Corris, lost the breaststroke for the first time in three years at Harvard, when he tired slightly on the last lap and the Indian's Mike Harvey touched him out.

Dartmouth freshmen swamped the Harvard freshmen, 62-33.