With the Big Green Teams
DARTMOUTH sports fans have become accustomed, in recent seasons, to ascribe the general numbing of the senses in late February to the long New England winter. This year, however, the sports scene on campus provided more excitement than an early spring. Coach Karl Michael's swimmers raced through their regular dual meet schedule to a duplicate of last season's 10-2 record, losing only to Yale and Princeton along the way. At that point in the season concern began to mount as the Indian natators looked ahead to the NCAA championships to be held in Dartmouth's new pool. Only one Green swimmer had met NCAA qualifying times, and days were running short.
The Indians' showing at the Eastern Seaboard Swimming Championships at Princeton dispelled those fears. Setting eight new Dartmouth College records, Coach Michael's charges fought to a very impressive third-place finish in the competition, only nine points behind Princeton with a total score of 251. Yale, overpowering once again, swept to another team championship. Unlike last season, when the Green took a strong fifth, though winning no individual first- place honors, Green swimmers _ captured four titles. Freestyle sprint star Stu Vance '69 covered the 50 yards in the best time: 21.71, with Captain Brad Lindeblad second in 21.86. Junior Al Petersen won the gold medal in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 55.34. Sophomore diver Mike Brown topped earlier performances by decisively establishing himself as the top Eastern diver from the one-meter board. Mike barely missed a double victory, when he missed on two optional dives from the 3-meter during the semi-finals. Leading the pack of 30 divers prior to this misfortune, he was unable to make up for the lapse, finishing a strong third. Still another Eastern title was brought back to Hanover by the Indians' 400-yard freestyle relay team consisting of Vance, Fred Severance, Lindeblad and Terry Robinson, who won in 3:09.85. Robinson logged a superlative 46.8 anchor leg.
Another important result proved to be the qualification of a large number of Green stars for the NCAA meet. With this in mind all Dartmouth swimmers were working to reach their peak the last weekend in March.
