Aquamen Lead at Blodgett

The Harvard men's swim team scored a whopping 271 points to take control of the Eastern Championships after one day of swimming yesterday at Blodgett Pool.

Harvard is 84 points ahead of second-place Princeton, which totaled 187 points.

Following the Tigers are Yale (147 points), Navy (128), Columbia (88), Pennsylvania (83), Brown (73), Cornell (70), Army (53), American (40), East Carolina (1) and Dartmouth with no points.

In one of the outstanding performances of the night, senior Ed Wagner won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.11, breaking the old Harvard record of 20.37 (also set by Wagner).

Another Harvard record was broken in a smashing performance by the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Wagner, sophomore Jan Esway, junior Sean Gouldson and sophomore Dave Hellman, which captured first place with a time of 1:20.68.

Hellman also took fifth place in the 50-yard freestyle.

Relay Edges Princeton

The 400-yard relay team of Gouldson, junior Richard Ou, Co-Captain Dave Knauert and Wagner also won a blue ribbon, finishing 1.44 seconds in front of a fast Princeton squad, 3:16.22 to 3:17.66.

Esway also took third place in the 200-yard individual medley and sophomore Rick Dzavik placed eighth in the same event.

The 500-yard freestyle yielded no top-three finishes but Harvard swimmers took fourth through seventh places, led by sophomore Brian Livingston's 4:28.08 finish.

In one-meter springboard diving, junior Craig Narveson took second and senior Robert McDermott took fifth.

"Great Team Effort"

Harvard Head Coach Mike Chasson praised the "great team effort," adding that the team was in good shape point-wise for the next two nights.

"We're ahead now, we're in control of the meet," Gouldson said.

Last year, the Crimson overcame a slow first-day start to win its first Easterns since 1986. This year, Harvard did not want to be put in the same position.

"The team has really come together for the meet this year," Wagner said.

The meet continues today and Saturday. Final events begin at 7 p.m. each night.