Swimmers Host Unbeaten Princeton

The fun and games are over for the Harvard swimming team. Fattening up their record in January on a diet of mediocre opponents, the team begins February and the lean part of their schedule when they face a strong, undefeated Princeton team this afternoon at 2 p.m. in the IAB.

Entering the second half of the season, the Crimson have a fine, but misleading, 4-1 record. But beginning with the Tigers this afternoon, and with Penn two weeks from today, and Yale a week later, the team will be facing their three strongest opponents. Unfortunately, there is a strong possibility that the trio will just be too strong for the mermen this year.

Princeton walloped Dartmouth, a team that beat Harvard by a single point in early January, and, more surprisingly, soundly trounced a strong Penn team 78-35, a squad Harvard coach Don Gambril termed the "best balanced" in the league. The Tigers are, as Gambril said, a "very fine team." "We will probably be really outmatched," he added.

Nevertheless, all is not lost. Even if the Crimson loses the meet, every indication points to some excellent races, some very fast times, and a meet that should be exciting to watch even if the Tigers's victory is a foregone conclusion.

"We are ready to give our best effort of he season," Gambril said yesterday, "whatever that may bring us."

The freestyle events should be the highlight of the afternoon. Both teams have nationally ranked freestylers in Harvard's Fred Mitchell and Princeton's Curt Haydon, and a possible matchup between the two in the 500-yd. free could result in a few changes in the pool record book. Freshman Dick Baughman, who held the Harvard record in the 1000-yd. free until Mitchell broke it against Springfield, will probably face Haydon in that distance, and either could break Michell's mark of 9:53.5, but there is no telling what events the Tiger star will swim.

Other than in the freestyle events, where the Crimson still have good depth, Princeton's overall depth will probably prove to be too much for Harvard. Charles Cambell, a gold medal winner in the backstroke at the Pan American Games this summer, will probably swim an excellent time in his specialty, and the perennially strong Princeton divers, who swept both Dartmouth and Penn, look as tough as ever and should have no trouble continuing their success.