Bulldogs Defeat Aquawomen, 70-61

NEW HAVEN, Conn.-Maybe when the team bus had to turn around somewhere in Newton in order to retrieve a forgotten swimmer, the aquawomen should have recognized a bad omen.

But they didn't take the hint, and cruised down I-86 right into the jaws of a growling Yale bulldog, masquerading as an outnumbered but extremely psyched Eli women's swim team.

The previously 8-3 aquawomen became an 8-4 squad following a heartbreaking 70-61 loss at the hands of the despised Elis.

They really shouldn't have lost, although the final tally was not surprising, or oven unexpected. What hurt was how the team lost, namely, with a tough defeat in the final 800-yd. freestyle relay.

Going into that winner-take-all and loser-go-home-crying event, the score was virtually tied, with Yale up by two meaningless points, 63-61. Coming out of the race, the Crimson still had 61 points, but Yale had 70, and the meet was over.

Harvard's "team of the three cripples," made up of Terri Frick (newly stretched knee ligaments suffered in the 400 IM), Kathy Davis (an injured knee which kept her from swimming anything besides backstroke and freestyle) and Maureen Gildea (tendonitis in her foot which"hurts all the time"), as well as one relatively sound Norma Barton, performed credibly, but still came up about four seconds short of the Yale quartet.

The outstanding story of that race was Frick, who because of her knee injury had to be helped onto the starting block. Her 2:06.27 split didn't quite measure up to her own standards (her best this year is under 1:59), but was definitely an exemplary performance.

Following the team's usual loss in the 400 medley relay, Gildea had no real competition in winning her first 1650-yd. freestyle of the season, narrowly missing qualifying for the college nationals with her 17:17.01.

Consecutive one-two finishes in both the 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke put Yale ahead by an imposing 29-14 score. In the next event, the 200-yd. butterfly, Harvard's Kathleen McCloskey and an as yet uninjured Frick easily finished one-two, with McCloskey winning the event easily with a 2:08.96 and pulling the Crimson to within eight points, 30-22.

Pam Stone and Adriana Holy then did all they could to even the score, finishing one-two in the one-meter diving competition to pull the aquawomen within one, 31-30.

Janie smith and McCloskey propelled the Crimson into the lead for the first time in the meet, copping the first two places in the 100 free, with Smith winning in 55.08.

The Elis then roared back to recapture the lead by holding Harvard swimmers to only third-place finishes in both the 200 back and 400 IM.

Consecutive firsts by Smith and Barton in the 50 free and 100 fly, respectively, brought the aquawomen within six, and the divers grabbed eight points by finishing one-two in the three-meter competition to give the team another brief taste of the lead, 58-57, with two events left.

Gwen Knapp then placed second in the 200-yd. breaststroke to make the score 63-61 before the final relay, a story already told.