Big Green Teams
In many ways, the winter sports season for Dartmouth's various teams was disappointing—the combination of bad luck, injuries, and maybe even a bit of overestimation—but as the spring season gets under way it's interesting to note that the composite record for the Big Green's varsity teams through the fall and winter campaigns is perfectly even—56 wins, 56 losses, four ties. If the snow ever departs, the new season offers signs of sending the Green on to the plus side of the ledger. But the future can wait. Here's what has gone before:
Without exception, it was a long season in basketball, hockey, and swimming. Also without exception, each of these teams finished on positive notes.
In late January, Ron Keenhold's swimmers had a 5-1 record. Then a rash of injuries to standouts Chris Carstensen, Craig Colberg, and Captain Al Rheem caused a dismal February that saw the Indians fall to a 2-5 Eastern League record.
The dual finale was an expected loss to Penn (which won the EISL title for the first time ever). Still, Keenhold had his forces on the mend and the following weekend in the Eastern Seaboard championships at Philadelphia things were back in style.
Of the 15 swimmers competing for Dartmouth, 13 improved on their best previous times. Rheem and versatile Jim Gottschalk did the most for the in the three-day battle, as Dartmouth mouth came through with victories in both the 400-medley relay and in the 400-freestyle relay (where the Indians were defending champs).
Penn edged Princeton for the team title, while Yale sneaked past Dartmouth in the scramble for third place, even though the Elis were unable to garner a single first-place finish.
Gottschalk, from Bedford, Ohio, set Dartmouth records in the three individual events he entered—the 200 medley, the 100 backstroke, and the 400 medley. Rheem, undaunted by a late-season trace of mononucleosis, lowered his own record in the 200 butterfly and in the 100 butterfly.
Both were in action in the 400-medley relay, along with sophomore Bill Lehman and Carstensen, as the Indians set a record of 3:33.33 in a startling upset win over Princeton and Penn.
Colberg replaced Lehman in this combination for the 400-freestyle relay and Dartmouth turned in one of the nation's best times—3:08.2—to cap a maximum effort.
"I think we shocked hell out of a lot of people, especially when we won the medley relay," said Keenhold. "It was really a great effort, considering that we were using three people who had been injured not long before."
The best comeback story was Carstensen. The All-America from Haddonfield, N. J., suffered a knee injury in a toboggan spill a month before and still came within fractions of a second of equaling his 1970 winning times in both the 50 and 100 freestyles. He also was the anchor man on both relays.
The Indians' other points came from diver Bill Thorwarth who has been elected with Carstensen to lead the Green next winter. Thorwarth duplicated his 1970 efforts as he placed seventh and sixth in the one- and three-meter dives.
So, from a 6-5 dual meet record (well off the 10-1 and 10-2 records of the two preceding years) things turned around significantly for Keenhold's clan and offered hopeful signs for more success in the NCAA meet in late March.
Jim Gottschalk '72, with Coach RonKeenhold, set three Dartmouth recordsand led off two winning relay effortsat the Eastern Seaboard swim meet.
