SWIMMING

Two facts became conspicuously clear after Dartmouth's swimming team whipped Navy and Army to lift their early season record to 3-0: (1) The Indians again have the makings of a team that will vie for the top of the Eastern League pack with Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. (2) Mike Brown is the best diver in the East this winter and may be the best in the nation.

Returning from the long holiday layoff, Coach Karl Michael's forces showed the effects of no competition as Navy pushed them into the final freestyle relay before bowing, 61-52.

A week later, the Indians christened the new pool at West Point by blitzing the Cadets, 73-40, in a demonstration of how fast the Green seems to have progressed after the layoff.

Brown is something else. The senior co-captain from Denver, Colo., has been superb in sweeping the one- and three-meter events in Dartmouth's first three meets. Against Navy, he won the three-meter event with 321.80 points. "You just don't see that kind of score - especially at this stage of the season," said Michael. Brown was diving so well that he overshadowed the great effort of sophomore Bill Thorwarth who easily swept to second place in the Navy meet. At Army, Brown was again a lopsided winner as he and sophomore Jim Gottschalk triggered Dartmouth's unexpectedly easy victory.

Gottschalk and junior Al Rheem are Dartmouth's most versatile swimmers and are the keys to much of the Green's success this winter. Gottschalk won both the 200 medley and the 200 backstroke against Army after winning the medley against Navy. In both meets, he gave the Indians leads they never lost in the opening medley relay. Rheem is rounding into form in the butterfly (he was an All-America in the event last season) and combines with Gottschalk, Chris Carstensen, and Co-Captain Stu Vance to give Dartmouth a dangerous 400 freestyle relay combination.

Carstensen has been a great early season performer in the 200 and 100 freestyles. He has been setting the pace for Vance and gives the Indian co-captain much to shoot for during the coming weeks.