Ho, hum. Things are back to normal with the Harvard swimming team.

Riding the crest of a wave of confidence reinforced by last week's win at Princeton, the Crimson aquajocks routed yet another Eastern League foe, Cornell, 66-45, Saturday at Blodgett Pool to raise their undefeated season's slate to 8-0.

The meet was not even as close as the score indicates. Harvard won the first five events, and after Kent Ashwood's and Julian Mack's one-two finish in the 200-yd. individual medley, coach Joe Bernal's charges led, 34-8.

"Harvard's depth allows them to score points practically anywhere they want against most teams," Cornell coach Jim Perkins said afterwards. "This was a chance for coach Bernal to experiment by putting his big guns in events they don't normally swim and to see what some of his younger kids can do."

Ned Cahoon, a lesser-known sprinter usually relegated to second-string status behind standouts Malcolm Cooper and Mack, responded to this opportunity with wins in both the 50- (22:53) and 100- (50.11) yd. freestyles.

"Considering the difficulty of our recent workouts and the amount of Nautilus training that Ned has been doing, these were outstanding times for him," Bernal said in praise of Cahoon. "We're gearing up towards Easterns now, and I think we'll see a lot more improvement out of him with some rest and a shave," he added.

The Crimson's task of unseating sixtime defending Eastern champion Princeton was made somewhat more difficult this weekend when freshman distance ace Phil Atkinson announced his decision to take a semester's leave of absence, following a controversy over Atkinson's storage of nitroglycerine at the Science Center.

Atkinson went out in style Saturday, leaving coach Bernal drooling over his 1000-yd. freestyle performance. His time of 9:39.30 ranks him as the fifth-best 1000-man in Harvard history.

"Phil's intense competitiveness and his team spirit will be sorely missed," Bernal noted--not to mention the estimated 15-25 points that he could have scored at Easterns.

CRIMSON SPLASHES: Bobby Hackett racked up another Blodgett Pool record Saturday. His lead-off split in the 400-yd. freestyle relay of 45.97 broke the previous mark of 46.33.