With the Big Green Teams
BECAUSE most swimming teams seldom see their coach actually in the water, there's usually a standing joke that the man can't swim a stroke.
As a Dartmouth undergrad, Karl Michael's specialty was diving. He was given the opportunity to demonstrate his swimming prowess rather spontaneously in the aftermath of what must rank as the finest matchup of dual meet talent in Dartmouth history on February 8 in the Alumni Gym pool.
For the first time in a decade, Dartmouth defeated Princeton's swimmers and the spirited Indians wasted little time in resorting to a tradition that is normally restricted to coxswains. Mike's belated dash for the security of the pool office was a picture of futility. He was given an instant's reprieve to remove his wallet and glasses (he forgot about his watch) and a dozen hands heartily hurled him into the shimmering turquoise water.
Ron Keenhold and Don Wertz, Michael's assistants, quickly joined their leader as Captain Terry Robinson & Company capped a performance which ranks high among the outstanding efforts produced by Dartmouth's athletes this year and in the past decade.
The 58½-S4½ victory over the Tigers rang down the curtain on the completely successful "first half" of the current swimming season. Added to five previous victories and a subsequent 67-46 triumph over a dangerous Navy team, the Big Green remained all-victorious as the campaign moved toward the Eastern and National championships.
On the assumption that the Green will topple all challengers except Yale, Michael's forces will exceed the 10-2 marks compiled in the past two seasons and produce their best record in dual competition since 1949-50 when they were 11-1.
The Princeton meet was the target for the Indians in the first half of the season. "No matter how we figured our manpower," said Michael, "I didn't see any way that we could win the meet before the final freestyle relay." What he was unable to measure was the determination that Robinson had generated among his teammates.
"Terry is a big-time swimmer," said Michael. "He thrives on championship competition and knows how to win. He has a way of needling the squad, challenging them in practice, and pushing them to better performances."
A year ago, Princeton won the opening event - the 400-yard medley relay - and Dartmouth was forced into a tailchase that left it a 60-53 loser.
There have been few finer medley relays than the opener of the Carnival meet. Robinson anchored a combination of senior A1 Petersen, plus sophomores Tom Morton and A1 Rheem that fought head to head and won by a foot in 3:35.4. While this key first got the ball rolling, it was the next event - the 1000-yard freestyle - that gave an inkling of what was to come.
Petersen was to lower two Dartmouth records in the individual medley and 200-yard backstroke later and give Dartmouth much-needed fire, but it was Clint Harris who triggered the Indians' explosion as he jumped off for the 1000 freestyle.
"Two days before the meet I told Clint he'd be swimming the thousand and that I'd be happy if he took second," said Michael. "If I told him we needed a first, I was afraid he might tighten and not give us the race we needed."
Well, a loose Clint Harris proceeded to hold off the favorite, Princeton's Dermod Quinn, to win by less than a second. His time, 10:55.0, was 17 seconds faster than he had ever covered the distance before and his pace pulled teammate Tim Frawley to third place in 11:12.9 - a full 24 seconds under his best previous time.
From that point the Indians were flying. Caught up most by the momentum were Dartmouth's sophomores - Rheem, Morton, Jack Dickard, and Dave Freyberg - who were instrumental in removing Princeton from the ranks of the unbeaten. Michael decided to go with Morton in the shorter leg of the medley relay and match Dickard against Princeton ace Art Deffaa in the 200-yard breaststroke later in the meet.
Morton's 1:01.7 split in the medley bested Deffaa, and Dickard and Freyberg both pushed past Deffaa in the 200-yard event later on that brought Dartmouth within a point of clinching the meet.
Deffaa was a crucial link in Princeton's plans but the sophs and Petersen did him in. Petersen's efforts rank with the finest in Dartmouth history as he tripled in the relay, individual medley, and backstroke and produced best times in all three.
"Al and Art are great friends and swim together during the summer," said Michael. "There's nothing they'd rather do, though, than beat each other."
February 8 was all Petersen's. He lowered the 200 IM mark, set a week earlier by freshman Jim Gottschalk, to 2:01.6 and Deffaa finished third. In the 200 back, he had to settle for second behind Princeton's Jan Kubik but still lowered bis own College record to 2:02.5. (A week later, at Navy, Petersen continued bis record binge with a 2:00.5 clocking.)
Junior diver Mike Brown, who will rank high among Dartmouth's finest divers, turned in a superlative effort to capture the one-meter event and then conservatively worked for second place and the three points that put the Indians over the top.
In addition to his efforts in the opening relay, Robinson contributed a very respectable 5:07.8 winning time in the 500-yard freestyle, a specialty for the Rye, N. Y., leader, that came hard on the heels of a one-two sweep of the 100-yard freestyle by Rheem and junior Ted Severance.
What lies ahead? The primary dual meet target is Harvard in early March and then the Eastern championships at Yale on March 13-15. From there, it's the NCAA championship meet which moves out to Indiana University in late March after being held in Dartmouth's glittering pool a year ago. Indiana is the defending NCAA champion and Dartmouth's objective will be an improvement over last year's 11th-place finish.
"We might have had some better overall talent in past years," said Michael, "but I think Terry has made this team want to win more than some of the others."
Coach Karl Michael (r) and his assistant, Ron Keenhold, received a dunking whenDartmouth defeated Princeton in Hanover and ended a ten-year Tiger dominance.
