Princeton's cocky varsity swimming team almost met defeat at the hands of the spunky and sometimes lucky Harvard swimmers in the IAB Saturday. Harvard held the undefeated Tigers at bay until the last event but Princeton snatched a 58-55 victory.

A disqualification of Princeton's 400-yard medley relay team established an atmosphere of upset. The medley relay, the first event of the meet, is Harvard's weakest point, and the Princeton's damaging false start gave a psychological boost to Harvard almost as important as the seven points. From then on it was Crimson all the way, until the last event.

Pete Adams, swimming for the last time in the IAB as were all the seniors, set a Harvard record in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Bill Shrout, John Bragg, and Bill Murphy helped Harvard hang tenaciously on to a small lead.

Halfway through the meet the score stood at 32-29 for Harvard. But the Tigers swept the 200-yard butterfly to gain the lead for the first time in the afternoon. Harvard's Bragg and Adams responded by sweeping the 100-yard freestyle. The seesaw continued to swing as Princeton won the 200-yard backstroke to tie the meet; Harvard stormed back with a Shrout-led sweep of the 500-yard freestyle. Then Princeton edged out Harvard's Carl Cummins in the 200-yard breaststroke, postponing the decision to the final event, the 400-yard free relay.

With Harvard ahead 55-51, coach Bill Brooks put Bragg, Dan Thompson, Shrout and Adams on the line. Shrout had won twice, Bragg had won twice, Adams had placed first and second. The effort had been too much. As against Army, the larger, stronger team came on in the last event to win a heartbreaking victory over a tired and overworked Harvard team.

Even in defeat, it looked as if luck might come to the rescue of the spunky Crimson. The two teams held their breaths as the officials debated a false start by Princeton in the decisive relay. Unlike the first event, however, the call went in the Tiger favor and for Harvard the dreams were over.