Yale's powerful swimming team had to come from behind to vanquish Harvard, 53 to 22, Saturday afternoon in the Blockhouse pool.

The Elis won the first event, the 200-yard medley relay, but were disqualified because freestyler Bill Farnsworth took off before breaststroker Tom Merritt touched the end of the pool. This gave Harvard at 5 to 0 lead, but it proved to be short-lived.

The visitors took first and second in the next race, the 220-yard freestyle, giving them an 8 to 6 advantage. From then on they were never threatened as they swam to their forty-sixth straight victory.

Of the remaining eight events after the medley relay, Yale won all eight and picked up a second in three of them. Two of the Crimson's four second places went to freestyler Joe Fox (in the 50 and the 100), while Tom Woods scored three points in the backstroke and Captain Jerry Gorman trailed Yale's Emile Estoclet in the 440.

Otherwise, the locals were completely outclassed by Coach Bob Kiphuth's masterful tutees. There were no scintillating times, probably because the Blue-clad swimmers never had to burn up the pool to win. Even after the first race, nobody honestly thought Harvard would give the Elis much of a fight. Yale has a collection of outstanding swimmers and the Crimson did as well as it was expected to against them.

Thus, Harvard finishes fourth in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League, behind Yale, Army, and Dartmouth.

In the freshman meet, which preceded the varsity races, Yale took an early lead and kept adding to it. The final score was 51 to 24.