Hackett Reaches Finals in 500 Free at NCAAs

Two members of Harvard's men's varsity swim team, inspired by their successful escape from the gray drudgery of Cambridge to the sunny blue skies of Long Beach, California, officially became University Division I All-Americans during the first day of action in the NCAA championships at Long Beach State yesterday.

Olympic silver medalist Bobby Hackett, the freshman prodigy from Yonkers, N.Y., who led the Crimson to an undefeated dual meet season and a second place finish at the Eastern Championships last month, set yet another new Harvard University record in the first event of the three day meet, the 500-yd. freestyle.

Hackett, who had recorded the third best time in the nation at that distance prior to yesterday's preliminaries, qualified for last night's championship final (held after press time because of the time difference) by sailing to the touchpad in the time of 4:23.28.

Hackett's time, more than a full second faster than the meet record he set at Easterns, was the fourth fastest qualifying standard among the top six who made the finals. But Crimson assistant coach Steve Berizzi remarked after the trials that "Bobby has a good chance to move up one place, and he's certainly within striking distance of first."

Hackett may have to wait until Saturday's 1650-yd. freestyle, his strongest event, for a shot at his first NCAA title, however, as a pair of Olympic gold medalists--Long Beach State's Tim Shaw (4:21.19) and UCLA's Brian Goodell--grabbed the two middle lanes (indicative of the top two seeds) with their swims in the prelims.

While there's no question that Hackett's a speedster of their caliber (after all, the camera crew for ABC's "Wide World of Sports" was in Cambridge last week to film a profile of him that will air tomorrow afternoon), even Berizzi admits, "Shaw's had much more experience at this kind of competition."

Harvard's other All-American sent such a shock through the pool that he almost shorted out the electric timing system. Golden Boy Malcolm F.S. Cooper, ranked 35th nationally in the 50-yd. freestyle before yesterday, took the supersonic transport back and forth across the pool and landed 20.84 seconds later to sneak into the consolation finals with the 12th fastest qualifying time.

The 13th finisher, now just another pretty face, touched just .02 seconds behind the Crimson speed demon.

"Malcom's got his hands full tonight," Berizzi commented yesterday afternoon, referring to the awesome lineup of superstars that dominated even the consolation heat of the prestigious 50. Scott Findorff of USC, Jonty Skinner of Alabama, and David McKagg of Auburn are just a few of the big names Cooper will face in the consies.

Cooper turned in another spectacular performance in the 400-yd. medley relay, where he split a blazing 48.76 for the butterfly leg. The Crimson team of Geoff Seelen, Tuomo Kerola, Cooper and Julian Mack finished 22nd-in 3:27.53, which was just a few hundredths of a second off their time at Easterns.

The only other Crimson competitors yesterday were Steve Schramm and Jamie Greacen in the one-meter diving, who were still competing at press time.