Despite a spirited effort by a fairly strong Cornell squad, the varsity swimming team handed the Big Red a 54-32 defeat Saturday night, but not without some showings that are distressing omens a mere one week before the all-important Dartmouth contest.

In the 200-yard breastroke, the Crimson's two top swimmers, Doug McCartney and Jim Stanley, finished one-two, but barely an arm's length ahead of Cornell's Dave Stiller. Had the varsity lost this race, another meet would have hinged on the final freestyle relay.

For the team to defeat Dartmouth and hope to challenge Yale, it must be able to improve in places such as the breastroke, where last year, Stanley was Eastern champion and national runner-up in the 100-yard distance.

Cornell captain Charlie Carpenter broke his school's 200-yard butterfly cord, swimming a 2:27.8,1.3 seconds better than his own old mark. The varsity's Jim Perilman and Bill Shellstede finished second and third. This points up the need for Crimson captain John Hammond, who did not race in the 200 Saturday, to be in top form for the Dartmouth encounter.

Strong points include Bruce Hunter's fastest times of the current season in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyles, the latter a fine 50.4, a smooth functioning by the 400-yard medley relay team, Koni Ulbrich's win in the 220-yard freestyle, and Bob Komenda's near win in the 440.

Cornell took both first and second in the 200-yard backstroke and won the dive.

The impressive Freshmen team broke two collage Freshmen records in an easy 58-28 win over Exeter. The 200-yard medley relay team of Norris, Eisenbrey, Bill Zentgraff, Fred Elizalde, and Bob Kaufman swam a 1:47.6 and Henry Southall swam a 2:00.2 in the 200-yard freestyle.