The tough part of the season is about to begin for Harvard's swimming team. The Crimson. which has coasted undefeated through its first seven meets, faces Dartmouth February 14 in one of the winter's most crucial contests.

Cornell became Harvard's most recent victim last weekend. losing '63-50 in Ithaca. It was the fourth league win for the swimmers, who are in first place in the Eastern Intercollegiate League.

Harvard earned first in each of the five freestyles at Cornell, with two of them going to Steve Krause, a former world record holder in the 1650-meter freestyle. Saturday he won the 200 in 1: 49.7 and the 500 in 5: 01.1 despite being ill.

Sickly Swimmers

Paul Horvitz, captain Mike Cahalan, and Greg Huff, who was also somewhat sick, were the other victors in the freestyle events.

Cornell scored most of its points through strength in the specialty strokes and in the dives. The Big Red's outstanding George Boizelle won two events and picked up a second-place finish in the butterfly. In the individual medley, Boizelle's 2:00.7 was a pool record and a victory by 11 seconds over Harvard's Al Ackerman.

The afternoon became more difficult for him later, however. He and the Crimson's John Munk swam in the butterfly in what was expected to be a great race, but Munk swam away from Boizelle at the end to win in two minutes flat, his fastest time of the season. Four events later, Boizelle edged Steve Baumgart by one second in the breaststroke with a 2:21.1 clocking.

Wedding

Harvard's best backstroker, sophomore Dan Kebick was in North Carolina for a wedding-not his own-so Cornell got a break in that event. Tim Marek edged John Burris of Harvard as the Big Red attempted to rally for the meet victory.

Harvard assistant coach Harold Miroff had expected the diving to be a tough place to earn points, and he was right. Ken Light, Cornell's excellent sophomore diver, was first at both heights. Teammates Tim Millhiser and Matt Leone picked up third-place points. Dave Silver, who is doing a good job of filling the shoes of Bill Murphy, earned seconds in both the one-meter and three-meter to prevent Cornell sweeps.

Krause and Huff were not the only sick ones. Toby Gerhart, who swam a leg on each relay, and manager Glenn Koocher made the trip despite illness. Distance freestyler Dave Powlison stayed in Cambridge.

Dartmouth will have the advantage of having practiced hard during January because of its trimester schedule. "This will be a factor," Harvard coach Bill Brooks acknowledged.