PRINCETON, Feb. 16--Dave Abramson and John Pringle scored an amazing 26 points between them at Princeton's Dillon Pool today, but it took a Crimson victory in the final freestyle relay to defeat the Tigers, 52-43, and extend the swimming team's undefeated record to 18 consecutive meets.

With only the relay left in the meet, the lead had changed hands six times and the score stood Harvard 45, Princeton 43. But by swimming Elliot Miller in the 50 and Abramson in the 100, coach Bill Brooks had insured that his freestylers would be fresh, and the quarter of Dennis Hunter, Dave Brandling-Bennett, Gregg Skalinder, and A1 Engelberg sped to an impressive 3:21.3 victory, a good ten yards ahead of Tiger anchorman Jed Graef.

Four False Starts

The big stars of the evening for Harvard, however, were triple winner Abramson and double winner Pringle. Except for the dive and the short 50-yard sprint, freestyler Abramson and the versatile Pringle swam alternately in six consecutive events in the center of the meet. To give the two as much rest as possible, Crimson swimmers intentionally false-started at least four times, but the endurance feat alone was a remarkable one.

In the 200-yard freestyle, Abramson was pressed by Princeton's Graef but won without difficulty in 1:53.1, while Ed Seaton picked up an important third. Then, swimming with Engelberg in the 100-yard freestyle, Abramson came out of the final turn to find Tiger Norman Thomas almost a body length ahead and the other Princeton swimmers also in front.

Overtakes Thomas

With a fantastic effort, Abramson overtook and passed Thomas, while Engelberg moved up to take third. It was only the second time that Abramson had swum the race in college and his time of 50.5 was the fastest of his career.

In order to try for the maximum number of points in the other individual events, coach Brooks used Pringle in the medley, the butterfly, and the backstroke. He counted on Bill Chadsey and Porky Pitts to take second and third in the breaststroke, which they did, behind Princeton's Gardiner Green.

In the medley, the Tigers' Dave Kennedy led through the butterfly and backstroke, but Pringle surged in front on the breaststroke and won nicely in 2:07.1, while Joe Stets picked up third. After the dive, Pringle sped to an all-important first in the butterfly. Pushed by Princeton's Jim Griffith, his time of 2:05.9, was only 0.2 of a second off the Harvard University record.

The backstroke, only two minutes later, was too much even for Pringle and was won by Graef and Cy Hornsby.

Though the Crimson was behind at that point, Abramson and Stephen Seagren swept the 500-yard freestyle in 5:28.3 and put the varsity ahead to stay. The only other Harvard sweep came in the 50-yard freestyle, in which Elliot Miller and Dennis Hunter beat Thomas and Green in 22.6.

Princeton's other firsts came in the medley relay, which they won in 3:48.9, and the dove, which John Andrews won with an impressive 78 points, followed by Scott Andrews and Jeff Lewy.

The freshman team, led by double winners Henrey Frey and John Quinn, won the first seen events, sweeping the first four, and then coasted to a 52-43 victory over the Tigers.