Mermen Bow In Nationals

While Indiana's powerhouse swimming team was rolling up a commanding lead in the NCAA Championships, which started yesterday in Bloomington, Indiana, Harvard's Mike Cahalan and Steve Krause suffered disappointment as they failed to qualify for last night's finals.

Cahalan, captain-elect and Eastern champion in the 50-free, turned in a 21.79 clocking in the preliminaries. The slowest qualifier finished in 21.70. "I was a little disappointed," the Crimson sophomore said last night. "I had a not-too-great start and a not-too-great turn," Cahalan explained. His best previous time was 21.6, recorded at the Eastern Seaboards.

Harvard's other representative, Krause competed in the 200-yard individual medley. Krause finished in 2:03.3, 0.2 seconds slower than his Harvard record, but 2.3 seconds off the time he had to have to earn a berth in the finals.

Good Start

"Steve came out well in the fly, but his breaststroke and freestyle were a little bit slow compared to the rest of the field," Cahalan said.

Dan Farley of USC was the eventual winner in the 50-free with a record time of 20.8. Indiana's sensational Charlie Hickcox, holder of three NCAA marks, helped his team take its big lead with the victory in the individual medley.

Krause will swim in one more event, the 400-yard individual medley, today. Cahalan will not enter any other events. While hopeful about Krause's chances today, coach Bill Brooks said last night, "The competition here is such that it's very, very hard to get into the finals."