Tigers Drown Swimmers, 74-21; Ski Team Takes 5th at Williams

The Harvard swim team turned in several outstanding performances at Princeton Saturday but still lost to the undefeated Tigers, 74-21.

In the dive, red-headed Bill Murphy pulled one of the upsets of the year. The sophomore came within 13 points of topping 1966 junior national champion Holt Maness.

Dick Saxe twice churned through the 100- free under 51 seconds -- his best times of the season. And Bob Padway overcame a bad turn in the freestyle relay to record a 49.9 clocking.

Al Birch had his best time in the backstroke, Doug Walther did the same in the butterfly, and Bill Shrout won the 100-yd. free, but Harvard was just no match for the now 10-0 Tigers.

The only Crimson win besides Shrout's came on a Tiger disqualification for jumping the gun in the medley relay. Anchorman Saxe swam the last two laps of his leg alone in the pool.

Murphy's game effort in the dive pointed up one serious flaw in the Harvard swimming program. At all the other major Eastern powers, the divers practice on relatively new Duraflex boards. The IAB board is 10-years old.

When Coach Bill Brooks applied for a new one this Fall, he was told the money wasn't there. He has requested two new ones for next year--Bill Murphy thinks they would be a great help.

The ski team--with a strong showing in both Alpine and Nordic events--landed fifth place honors last weekend in the season's biggest event, the Williams Winter Carnival and Eastern Interscholastic Ski Association Senior Championships.

Fifth place earned the Crimson an invitation to the National Athletic Association ski championships at Sugarloaf Mountain in Kingfield, Maine, the weekend of March 3.

At Williams, the Nordic team finished fourth--its best showing this season. Ben (Bear) Barnes and Jim Sise battled a rutted and icy cross-country course to place 12 and 13 in a field of 41 and put the Crimson solidly above Vermont and St. Lawrence.

John Mitchell, third man in for Harvard, placed 24. Several racers crashed into trees and broke skis on the fast 15-kilometer course, which curved through the Savoy State forest. The winning time was 54 minutes, 51 seconds.

The Alpine team, led by Steve Blodgett, finished third in the giant slalom and fourth in the slalom.

Blodgett took ninth in the giant; Greg Peters and Peter Carter finished 12 and 14 in the field of 33. In the slalom Blodgett finished sixth, Peter Carter 11 and Peter Gagarin 16.

Harvard jumpers Jim Sise, Ben Barnes, and John Mitchell leapt to 19, 28, and 29 in a field of 40 to put the team in seventh place.

The overall top five for the weekend were Dartmouth, Middlebury, Williams, St. Lawrence, and Harvard. Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and Colby followed.

The team will be able to race in the NCAA championship because of agreements reached over the weekend between the Ivy League and the NCAA on the dispute over the 1.6 eligibility rule.

This is the first time in recent years that the NCAA ski championships have been held in the East.