Eastern Swimming Championships Open Today

WEST POINT N.Y.--If everything goes right, in three days, Bear Mountain Inn--scenically situated on the Hudson River--will be able to post a sigh stating. "The 1982 Eastern Scaboard swimming champions slept here."

If everything goes right, seniors Jack Gauthier and Tim Maximoff, will do something the Crimson swimmers have done--help win it fourth consecutive Eastern title.

And everything is going right.

Coming off its fifth consecutive Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) championship and its second straight undefeated season, the Harvard men's swim team enters the U.S. Military Academy's Olympic Natatorium as the odds-on favorite to repeat for the fourth straight time as the Eastern Seaboard Champ and bring the Kiputh Trophy back to Coach Joe Bernal's office at Blodgett pool. The only question is the victory margin.

At last year's meet, the aquamen set a new Eastern Seaboard record for team points, tallying a whopping 583 and outdistancing Princeton, the second-place finisher by 327.

The other 21 teams at West Point aren't ready to concede the meet yet. But all admit it's an uphill battle to prevent another Crimson rout. LaSalle College--not a member of the EISL, and an unknown opponent for Harvard--is in a pack with Ivy foes Princeton, Columbia, and Yale gunning for the runner-up spot.

"Everybody is shooting at us," Coach Bernal said yesterday. "This meet is like King of the Mountain, with everybody climbing up the hill from all over."

Led by junior captain Ted Chappell, individual high point scorer in last year's meet, the Crimson has the 20-man squad to walk away with the competition and establish a new scoring mark is the process. A lot depends on Chappell repeating his triple-victory performance, sophomore Mike Miao folding the freestyle sprints, and freshmen Dave Barnes and Matt Davis performing under the pressure of a major college championship. The rest is the matter of the overwhelming superiority of Crimson depth in most events.

In diving, Harvard may have the top fear board-bouncers at the meet is Dan Wasson, Jeff Mulle, Karl Illig, and Steve Feyerick, but the subjective nature of diving judges makes a sweep on either board very unlikely.

'No Substitute'

"People have conceded first place to Danny Watson, and maybe even second to Jeff," Coach John Walker said. "If anyone has to dive well it's Karl and Steve"