Tigers In Tanksuits

There is just one main road that interrupts the serenity of the Princeton campus. A slow jog along it will take you by the few businesses that service the students--an antiseptic Woolworth's, a cheerfully Tudor P.J.'s Pancake House, one lone movie theater advertising "Fort Apache, The Bronx." Before you know it you are out of the town and into the suburban area where graceful turn-of-the-century mansions are occasionally jurtaposed with modernistic concrete boxes, and where large expanses of land and water are dotted with honking brown geese.

Perhaps it is this dearth of activity and lack of places to escape to that brought well over 100 spectators to Dillon Pool last Saturday to watch the Princeton Tigers drown the Harvard aquawomen by a convincing margin. More probably, however, it was because the Tigers have a devoted following that attends every meet--a following the high caliber of their swimmers and the stellar quality of their divers merits.

The packed stands at Dillon last Saturday challenge the oft-repeated statement that women's sports just don't have the prestige or the background yet to attract fans. Obviously the people at Princeton recognize excellence when they see it, and they turn out to support it no matter what gender.

Ranked thirteenth in the nation last year, the Princeton aquawomen boast a talented crop of freshmen and veterans, including freshman Hawaiian Kaili Chun, who was Harvard's top recruiting goal last year. Against the likes of versatile junior Charlotte Tiedemann, freestyler Liz Richardson, and top-ranked diver Chris Moses most teams just crumble--much the same way Harvard did last week.

Although the Harvard team is rich in talent, spunk and drive, a lot of changes will have to be made before it can compete on Princeton's level, or generate the amount of respect necessary to earn a following. First, the team will have to address the alarming attition rate that plagues it annually. Ivy League superstar Norma Barton and sprinter Janle Smith are just two of the multi-talented swimmers who hung up their goggles this year to explore what Harvard has to offer outside of Blodgett. And, as the shamefully unupdated record board indicates, there are a number of former greats like Liz Kelley and Sherry Lubbers still wandering around the campus--swimmers who apparently became disenchanted with the sport for one reason or another.

Somehow, freshmen, and even upperclassmen, are going to have to become enamored enough of the swimmirg program to return in the fall for the time-consuming regimen of double workouts and weight-training sessions that eat away most of the year. Instead of alienating start performers the coaches must start nurturing the swimmers along to better performances. Then, perhaps as a side effect, the selection of captains will also become a more meaningful and competitive process; not the present system of scrounging around for two swimmers who have stuck it out for three years.

The Crimson will also have to beef up recruiting. In past years recruiting has been fairly low-key Jue to Harvard's stringent academic requirements and the relatively relaxed competition or women's sports in the Ivy League. But now that the quality of swimming is rising and times are dropping. Harvard will have to woo prospects more aggressery. And even that may not be enough--Harvard's high academic standards may be part of the problem.

Right now, Coach Vicki Hays is concentrating on finding backstrokers and breaststrokers to fill the huge gaps in the Harvard lineup. Already two 1:02, 100 yard backstrokers have been accepted early decislop, and Hays anticipates that the stability of this year's coaching situation, as well as the assurance that the training program will not change, will induce a greater percentage of her forty recruits who are accepted to come to Harvard.

Though changes need to be made in the swimming program, the talented young aquawomen still deserve a larger turnout for thelr meets. Several freshmen have been setting the pool on fire all year, and the performances in the last dual meet--Saturday against Yale--promise to be better than usual.