SWIMMING
Sparked by the most talented group of sophomores to appear on the Hanover scene in a long, long time, Coach Karl Michael's swimmers enjoyed the finest season in Dartmouth history this winter. The Indians won ten meets and dropped but two .... bettering the 9-2 records of the 1941-42 and 1946-47 teams. College and pool records were surpassed on many occasions as the squad thrashed such perennially powerful teams as Williams, Navy, Harvard and Princeton in addition to walloping Wesleyan, Columbia, Springfield, Pennsylvania, Boston University and Brown.
Coach Michael, who completed his sixth season as Big Green swimming chief (he spent three years in the Navy during the war), was agreeably surprised by the manner in which his first-year men came through. He knew that last year's freshman team was a strong one, but sophomores often become jittery in important meets and tend to tighten up. This occurred during the Army meet at West Point early in the season and the Indians dropped a 40-35 decision to the Cadets. But after this defeat, the sophomore contingent settled down and began to amaze everyone. The team lost only one other meet—a 42-33 affair against Yale ....
which was the closest any Eastern team has come to the Elis in quite some time. Dartmouth, at the season's end, was the second most powerful team in the East. As only one senior regular, Captain Dana Jackson of Brooklyn, New York, will be absent next year and a strong freshman team was on hand again this season, Dartmouth will again be among the upper crust in 1949-50.
In addition to Captain Jackson, who was the team's leading backstroke performer, Steve Pollak, a junior from Highland Park, 111., and Charles Solberg, another junior from Glencoe, 111., were the only upperclassmen among the firststringers. The bulk of the team and its most brilliant performers .... were sophomores. These included Jock Mclntyre and Blaine Boyden, freestyle stars from Honolulu; Charles Ryan, a freestyle sprinter from Akron, Ohio; Frank Bruch breast-stroker par excellence from Cleveland, Ohio; Hal Smith, Scarsdale, N.Y., Bill Duke, Greens Farms, Conn., and Pierce McKee, Glencoe, 111., distance swimmers; Bob Jackson, Lajolla, Cal., and Doug Simmons, Indianapolis, Ind., sprinters. In addition, all three varsity divers are sophomores. Bob Bowler, who is from Winnetka, 111.; Dick Rogers, who hails from Hudson, Ohio and Bob Rugen, of Plainfield, N.J., split the diving chores. Other point-getters were seniors Pete Norton of Staten Island, N.Y. and Bill Deevy, Rockville Center, L.1., in the free style events, junior Merritt Osborn in the breaststroke, and sophomores Bill Goulburn, Collingswood, N.J., in the sprints and Karl Starch, Lincoln, Neb., in the backstroke.
Mclntyre, a brawny powerhouse with enormous shoulders, smashed the College and Spaulding Pool records in the 100 yard dash by covering the distance in 52.2. This brilliant effort snapped Jay Armstrong's College mark of 52.4 and the pool record of 52.6 held by Howard Johnson of Yale. In addition, the 400-yard relay team of Ryan, Pollak, Boyden and Mclntyre set a new college record of 3:33 in this event against Yale. The old record was 3:37-3 and was set in 1947 by Roland Higgins, Ted Belfit (present freshman coach), Mort Thalheimer and Mike Hartung.
Another mark to fall was the 300-yard medley relay record of 2:59.9 set by Hank Dodd, Jay Urstadt, and Roland Higgins in 1947. A threesome of Captain Jackson, Bruch and Boyden lowered this to 2:59.2. Still another new record was set by Ryan, Pollak, Boyden and Mclntyre in the 200 yard relay. This quartet shaved one full second from the old mark of 1:36.1 set by Dick Howe, Pete Norton, Thalheimer and Higgins in 1947.
Mclntyre also swam a 23.5 fifty-yard dash to tie Jay Armstrong's 1938 mark in this event but it remained for Bruch to come through with the season's outstanding performance in a year of topflight swimming achievements.
The 19-year old sophomore breaststroker swam the fastest 200-yard race in College and pool history and the second fastest time recorded in the East this year to cap his outstanding season. Bruch's 2:23.7 smashed the 2:25.3 Spaulding Pool mark set earlier this year by Penn's Don DeForrest and easily surpassed his own 2:25.3 College record set against Brown. The only man to better Bruch's time in Eastern circles this year is the great Joe Verdeur, who holds every world breaststroke mark in existence. That hard work pays off can be seen by the fact that Bruch gradually cut thirteen seconds off his best performance of last season as he improved with every passing week.
All in all, Coach Michael and his young team put Dartmouth swimming back on the map and deserve a real pat on the back for a job extremely well done.
RECORD SMASHERS: Dartmouth's 300-yard medley relay team of (I. to r.) Capt. Dana Jackson, Frank Bruch and Jock Mclntyre, shown with Coach Karl Michael, lowered the mark in this event to 2:59.4 against Williams. It stood only until the Harvard meet, when Jackson, Bruch and Blaine Boyden lowered it to 2:59.2. With a 52.2 time, Mclntyre set a College and pool record for the 100-yard freestyle against Navy, while Bruch holds the similar 200-yard breaststroke record in 2:23.7. Jackson is a backstroker.
FASTEST IN DARTMOUTH HISTORY: The 400-yard freestyle relay team which won against Yale in 3:33, for a new College mark. Left to right, Jock Mclntyre, Blaine Boyden, Steve Pollak, and Charles Ryan. Pollak is a junior, the others sopohmores.
