Paced by Hess Yntema's suberb third place performance in the 200-yd. butterfly, the Harvard swimming team concluded a highly successful season Saturday with a 16th place finish in the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Knoxville, Tenn.

The bronze medal swim by Yntema pushed Harvard's three-day point total to 19--the Crimson's best showing in over a decade--and was the finest individual performance in the nationals by a Harvard swimmer since Bruce Hunter took the 50-yd. freestyle crown in 1960.

In the battle for the team championship, Indiana easily won its sixth straight national title, outdistancing Tennessee and the University of Southern California. The Volunteers, with an incredible performance on the final evening, surprised the Trojans for second. It was an impressive showing for the host school after only four years in the national spotlight.

Hoosiers

The Hoosiers three-day point total reached 358, while Tennessee, helped by a USC disqualification in the free relay, pulled away for second with 294 points to USC's 260. The point totals tailed off markedly after the top three, with UCLA holding off Washington for fourth, 168 to 150.

Besides Yntema's third, which, added to an earlier 11th in the 100-yd. fly gave the freshman star 14 points out of the Crimson's total of 19, it was not a particularly noteworthy final day for Harvard. None of the other Crimson performances were fast enough to qualify, although the team added two more record swims to bring to seven the number of University standards broken in the meet.

Rich Baughman--the lone Harvard scorer last year--turned in a very disappointing time in the heats of the 1650-yd. freestyle and subsequently was not close to making the consolations. His time of 16:31.880 was 20 seconns off his second-place time at the Easterns. John Kinsella of Indiana took the championships finals for the third straight year, winning in 15:29.209, three seconds off his American and NCAA record.

Score

Tim Neville, who became the only other Harvard swimmer to score in an individual event when he took an 11th in the 50-yd. free on Thursday, failed in his bid to make the final twelve in the 100-yd. free on Thursday. His time of 46.70 was faster than his time in the heats at the Easterns, but he needed to equal his Harvard record time of 46.376 to qualify.

John Trembley became the meet's only triple gold medal winner as he took the championship final in 45.090 to lead a 1-2 Tennessee performance.

Tom Wolf lowered his Harvard record to 1:57.20 in the heats of the 200-yd. backstroke but did not qualify. Mike Stamm of Indiana completed a record-breaking backstroke double in the finals, taking the event in 1:50.561, a time slightly slower than the new American and NCAA record of 1:50.524 he set in the heats. Defending champion and former record-holder Charlie Campbell topped off a disappointing meet as he scratched from the consolations after qualifying 12th.

Dave Brumwell swam close to his best time in the heats of the 200-yd. breast stroke, 2:11.28, but did not make the consolations. The final was won by Olympic medalist Dave Wilkie of Miami of Florida in 2:03.407 as the Englishman outswam four other American Olympians.

Lowering

In the 200-yd. fly, Yntema qualified seond behind eventual winner Gary Hall of Indiana, lowering his Harvard record to 1:51.34. In the finals, he took third in the extremely fast record time of 1:50.806. Yntema has now lowered the 200-yd. fly record a phenomenal six seconds since breaking it in the second meet of the year.

Harvard closed off the meet with a 3:10.09 400-yd. free relay, two seconds off its best time and failed to qualify. The final was won by Tennessee in an incredible 3:00.363, paced by Trembley's superb 44.37 anchoring leg.