M. swimming finishes second to Harvard at Easterns again

When racing against a formidable opponent, all elements of the race have to work in conjunction, like a well-oiled machine, to pull off the win. Quick starts, efficient turns and good pacing are essential, but if one of the parts falters, the whole system breaks down.

This was the case this past weekend, when men's swimming failed to keep up with Harvard's blistering pace in the first day of the Eastern Championships at West Point, N.Y. Once again, the Tigers came up short in their bid to keep the Crimson from their sixth straight Eastern title. Princeton lagged behind throughout and finished a respectable second — for the sixth straight time — losing by 260.5 points to the Crimson.

Looking at Thursday's results, the Tigers simply stumbled out of the starting gate. First off, the 200 medley relay team — which had blown the Harvard team away at the H-Y-P meet three weeks ago with a record-setting one minute, 19.79 second swim — came up short, adding two seconds to the above time and placing second.

In the next event, sophomore Carl Hessler finished fourth in the event, but four of the top eight positions were occupied by Harvard swimmers.

The Crimson freestyle dominance also haunted the Tigers again that day in the 50 free event. Princeton caught a tough break when the team found it would have to swim without sophomore Jamie Leahy, who came down with appendicitis Wednesday night. While sophomore Jesse Gage powered to the head of the standings with a second-place finish in finals, half of the final eight finishers were Harvard swimmers in this event as well. Overall, by the end of day one, Princeton faced a deficit that in the end was too large to recover from.

The second and third days had their bright spots, but never a successive series of upsets to build up sufficient momentum in the Tigers' favor. One bright spot in particular was the 100 fly. Gage claimed his first victory of the weekend with a time of 48.17, buoyed by fellow teammates senior Craig Wales' and sophomore Pat Donohue's respective fourth and fifth-place finishes. Donohue stepped up once more in the 100 backstroke, placing second with a time of 49.21, his best of the season. He was followed by the strong fifth-pace showing of freshman Steve Fleming.

Despite the lack of consistency, many individual highlights shined through in a weekend of missed opportunities. First off, Hessler added first place in the 200 butterfly to his year of dominance in that event. Although slightly slower than the national-best time he swam three weeks ago, the 1:45.60 finish still broke meet and pool records — the latter record being formerly held by Olympian Mark Spitz.

In the final event of the meet, the 400-free relay team of Gage, Hessler, freshman Mike Salerno and junior Nathan Rebuck pulled off the only Tiger relay win of the weekend, establishing an Eastern record in the process.