The Harvard men's varsity swim team finally came to the end of the long and winding road that began last October, as they spent the first weekend of the break earning a surprisingly strong 15th place finish at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Long Beach, California.

Four Crimson aquamen gained All-American recognition in leading the squad to its highest finish in a national meet since 1963. Harvard finished ahead of such powers as Michigan, Stanford and archrival Princeton (which did not score a point) in the three-day extravaganza which was won by Tennessee.

Great Expectations

As expected, freshman standout Bobby Hackett led the Crimson cruise through Long Beach's Belmont Plaza Pool. The Yonkers flash placed in three individual events, and combined with teammates Malcolm Cooper, Julian Mack and Michael Coglin to grab the twelfth spot in the 800-yd. freestyle relay.

Hackett's best swim came in his specialty, the 1650-yd. freestyle. Leading after 500 yards, coach Joe Bernal's prize pupil cost himself a few extra minutes on Wide World of Sports when he succumbed to his old nemesis, UCLA freshman superstar Brian Goodell.

Goodell, who finished just ahead of Hackett in the 1500-meter free at the Montreal Olympics to take the gold medal there, erased Hackett's 1000-yd. American record (set at West Point in December) along the way to his triumph. Hackett finished second in 14:59.98 (a University record, of course), while Goodell's pace-setting time was 14:55.

Hackett also produced some points for the Crimson by making the finals in the 500-yd. freestyle and the consolation heat in the 200-yd. free. In the former, Bobby qualified fourth with a University record time of 4:23.38 in the trials, but then went a few tenths of a second slower in the finals Thursday night to end up fifth. He was tenth in the 200 with a 1:39.15 clocking.

Junior thoroughbred Malcolm Cooper also had a fabulous meet for the men in Crimson lycra. He set a University record of 20.73 to grab a shocking 11th in the 50-yd. freestyle, recorded the fastest 100-yd. butterfly time in Crimson history in the medley relay (48.76), and swam a blazing leg (1:41.50) in Harvard's All-American free relay.