Probably the best varsity swimming team in Harvard history will close out its season in the NCAA championships at Yale, today through Saturday. The Crimson should finish fourth of fifth.

Perennial winner Ohio State rates a slight edge over Yale for the team title, mainly on the strength of its 32 sure points in the dive. Iowa should finish a distant third with Harvard, North Carolina State, and Stanford battling it out for the next three positions.

As during the regular season, the varsity's main strength will lie in the sprints, the 200, the butterfly, and the two relays. In the 50, Chouteau Dyer (22.3) will once again contend with Rex Aubrey (22.2) and Sandy Gideonse (22.4) of Yale. But he will also face the added competition of Ohio State's Jim Kimmel (22.3), Northwestern's Al Kuhn (22.6), and Stanford's Robin Moore.

The same men will come back in the 100, where the Elis again rate a slight edge, especially since they will be swimming in their own pool. Aubrey holds the world record of 49.0 for the event, but can expect trouble from Gideonse (49.7), Dyer (49.7), Moore (50.5), and Dave McIntyre of North Carolina State, who did a 48.8 relay leg in the Easterns two weeks ago.

Captain Jim Jorgensen (2:06.9) should improve over his fourth place finish last year in the 220. Only Indiana's Bill Woolsey (2:05.9) has posted a faster time this year. Gerald Tanable, also of Indiana, is on a par with Jorgensen.

But in the 220 butterfly, Dave Hawkins will probably retain the second position he won last year. Dick Fadgen of North Carolina State (2:13.0) beat him in the Easterns when Hawkins turned in a comparatively slow 2:17.8, but otherwise only Mike Delaney of Michigan (2:15) has covered the distance in faster time.

Much of the varsity's hope lies in the 400 freestyle relay team consisting of Dyer, Pete Macky, Jon Lind, and Jorgensen. This team took the Easterns in 3:26.1, and, on paper at least, is the second fastest team in the country--Yale being the fastest, of course. Ohio State has done a 3:26.9 using medley star Al Wiggins as Anchor man, but since Wiggins is expected to swim in other events, the Buckeyes may drop back. Iowa State has done 3:24 in a 20-yard pool, but over the 25 yard length this would be equivalent to about 3:28.

The medley relay team of Macky, Hawkins, and Jorgensen faces stiffer competition. Ohio State had done 2:46, Yale 2:47, North Carolina State 2:48, Northwestern 2:50, and Iowa State 2:52. The Crimson record to date is 2:52.4, but recent improvement by Pete Macky in the backstroke indicates that the varsity may get down to 2:50.