SWIMMING

When we move into the swimming department, we really have something for the boys. Without any qualification, this was the greatest swimming team in the history of Dartmouth College. With an overall record of 11 wins and 1 defeat, this team bettered that of last year's talented aggregation, which set a dual meet score of 10-2 and thereby constituted the best Dartmouth team up to that time. With only two performers (Captain Steve Pollak and Chuck Solberg) graduating, and with several outstanding swimmers coming up from the freshmen, next year's team should be possibly better.

Coach Michael's men finished in second place in league competition, well behind Yale but well ahead of everybody else. The crucial encounter was the meet with Harvard, which was expected to be very close, especially in view of the illness of one of the Green's key operatives. Happily, however, several of previously unheralded charges came through better than expected, and Dartmouth won going away. By so doing, they assured themselves of undisputed second place in the league, which they clinched by disposing handily of Princeton in the final dual meet of the season. This meet was featured by a new world's record of 2:13.1 by Princeton's sophomore breaststroke ace, Bob Brawner.

So this was a very heartening winter for Coach Michael and the boys in and around Spaulding pool. With some excellent schoolboy material finding its way into these parts, coupled with the patient expertness of Coach Michael, things are looking up. Yale is still very much in a class by itself (in this area, at least) and it will probably be some time before Dartmouth is in a position seriously to challenge the Blue. But the fact that we have hurdled Harvard and Princeton, both of whom formerly beat us two times out of three, augurs well for the future.

HOLDERS OF NEW COLLEGE RECORD: Three of the leading performers on Dartmouth's crack swimming team were (I to r) Ken Douglas, backstroke, Frank Bruch, breaststroke, and Bill McAndrew, freestyle, whose time of 2:58.4, in the Hanover meet with Army, set a new Green mark for the 300-yard medley relay.