Aquamen Overwhelm Winless Quakers, 66-45; Extends Longest NCAA Winning Streak to 31

When the Harvard men's swimming team faced Penn Saturday, it was competing against its own photographic negative. The aquamen were 10-0 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL); the Quakers were 0-10.

Penn graciously handed Harvard 66 points enough to extend the longest winning streak in the NCAA Division I swimming to 31. The Crimson returned the favor by allowing the Quakers only 45 points to keep their winless streak alive.

All Over

The Penn meet proved anti-climatic for Harvard, which scored a 77-36 massacre of LaSalle the night before. Going into its contest with the Crimson, LaSalle ranked second only to Harvard in the Eastern standings.

Harvard Coach Joe Bernal, who has lost only one of 61 games with the Crimson, sensing an easy victory, used the Penn meet as one of the season's last opportunities to help swimmers qualify for the Eastern Standards in events which they had not reached time standards for

"I don't think there is any doubt that we could have won every event if our top swimmers had entered their strongest events, but that wasn't the purpose of this meet said Harvard Coach Ken Oberg.

Dividends

The changes in the Crimson line up paid off for two Harvard swimmers. First place finishes for Matt Davis in the 200 IM and Dave Phillips in 200 backstroke qualified the two for the Easterns in those events.

Although Phillips had not previously swim the 200 backstroke in competition this season. Oberg anticipates a strong performance from him in the Easterns: "His 1 57 9 on Saturday was pretty good, but he will go faster and should be one of the front runners in both the 200 and 100 back at the Easterns."

Coming off his best time this season in the 200 butterfly on Friday. Captain Ted Cappell scored his best unshaved time ever in the 500 freestyle. His 4 29 5 not only earned Harvard five points, but it placed Chappell among the top 20 freestyles at that distance in the nation.

Captain Larry Countryman and Tom Verdin scored expected firsts in the 200 freestyle and the 200 butterfly, respectively, while Tim Ford and Courtney Roberts placed one two in the 1000 freestyle.

"Tim is like a drop of fresh blood injected into the body of our team." Oberg said of Ford. Harvard's recent recruit from Australia and internationally recognized distance swimmer. "Tim's 9 34 4 shows that he doesn't need stiff competition to post a great time."

Harvard sacrificed top honors in diving competition by entering. All-American Dan Watson. John Lightfoot, and Karl Illig unofficially Alex Lapidus. Harvard's fourth diver, produced his best performance of the season with second place on both boards.