After a long summer's wait for Cambridge aquatic buffs and for the athletes themselves, the beginning of the 1979-80 Harvard swimming season is finally upon us.

New challenges await: a mid-February dual meet with perennial national power Indiana; the defense of Harvard's Eastern League and Eastern Seaboard Championship titles; and an opportunity, in the friendly atmosphere of Blodgett Pool, to improve upon last season's 13th place NCAA finish.

What we are witnessing, in the words of Crimson coach Joseph W. Bernal, "is the creation of the Harvard swimming dynasty of the 1980s," designed to rival that of Yale in the 1940s and 50s--when the focus of national swimming attention centered on New Haven and the Ivy League.

Lifesaving

It remains to be seen whether Harvard can ever approach Yale's accomplishment of four national championships and ten runner-up finishes. But the Crimson squad is clearly on its way to becoming a real force in collegiate swimming.

Harvard's quest for the Eastern Seaboard swimming crown was not an easy task. Bernal, assuming control over the Crimson aquatic program in April 1977, faced several major obstacles.

Community apathy toward swimming and Harvard's administrative indecision--questioning any attempt to create a national power in any sport--were not the least of these problems. The new coach's aggressive recruiting and promotion of his sport helped alleviate these troubles, as did construction of Blodgett Pool and the emergence of other Harvard teams as regional powers--most notably in women's soccer.

With all this however, Princeton's awesome squad--which won the Easterns from 1973 to 1978--still stood between Bernal and regional swimming supremacy.

One event at last year's Eastern Championship Meet, the 4x200 freestyle relay, stands out as the watershed in the swimming program.

Harvard had taken a 40-point lead during the meet's first day, but the Tigers--on the strength of their freestyle depth--had clawed their way back into contention. The fact that Princeton featured four of the meet's top eight 200-freestylers competing on their relay team seemed to guarantee a win for the Tigers in that event, the momentum from which they hoped would carry them to victory on the third and final day.

The Crimson led off with ace Bobby Hackett, hoping to grab an early lead and hold on. Hackett got the lead, Julian Mack increased it slightly and Jack Gauthier gave Harvard a body-length edge going into the final leg. It was up to Mike Coglin to stave off the challenge of Princeton's 200 freestyle champion, Andy Saltzman.

Saltzman narrowed the gap to a quarter of a body length over the first six laps, but Coglin refused to be beaten. Harvard's winning time of 6:41.84 was a mere .03 seconds better than the Tigers, but the stunnning victory sank Princeton's title aspirations and sent the capacity Blodgett crowd into hysteria.

Great Expectations

Step one of Bernal's grand plan has been accomplished. The Crimson is recognized as the team to beat in the Eastern League this year, and Harvardians from the Yard to 60 Boylston St. have awakened to the fact that there is more on the other side of the river than frisbee fields and case studies in Baker Library.

But the jump from the Eastern champions to NCAA title contenders is a very big one. No squad can reasonably expect to challenge the country's swimming superpowers at the NCAA meet unless it is challenged consistently throughout the season. Likewise, the several potential Olympians on the Crimson squad need head-to-head competition with their peers if they are to earn the right to participate in next summer's Moscow Olympics.

"It is a matter of meeting the needs of our team," Bernal says. "We must give our athletes the opportunity to test themselves against top competition." In essence, the Crimson can't feast on the likes of Penn and Johns Hopkins all season, and then expect to switch gears for USC or Tennessee.

So there will be another treat at Blodgett this February. Bernal has persuaded Doc Councilman, the swimming czar at Indiana University who has produced more Olympians than any other American coach--Mark Spitz et al.--to bring his charges to Cambridge for a dual meet soon after second semester begins.

Malcolm Cooper, three-time Eastern 50-yd. freestyle champion and Jamie Greacen, another of Harvard's spectacular diving team, were lost to graduation, but a host of talented freshmen arrived in September. The team seems ready to meet this year's challenges. Tune in tomorrow for details.