Harvard's impressive legion of freshman swimmers proved their worth Saturday afternoon at Blodgett Pool, joining with the capable core of Crimson veterans to douse the visiting Columbia Lions, 77-36, in the season opener.

In the first event of the afternoon, the 400-yd. medley relay, a Yardling foursome of Dave Phillips, Dean Putterman, Tony Meier and Mike Miao buried all doubts about the Class of 1984's swimming ability with a three-second-plus win. Although fellow freshman Julian Bott gave the Crimson's other relay entry a slight edge on the backstroke leg, breaststroker Putterman stole the lead which Meier stretched out before handing it over to Miao, who raced him with the victory in 3:31.29.

Miao, who, like Meier, hails from California, shone the brightest of all, posting the first individual win of his collegiate swimming career when he churned out a 21.34 in the 50-yd. freestyle to finish just ahead of teammate Jim Carbone. To complete has perfect afternoon. Miao swam the first leg of Harvard's victorious 400-yd. freestyle relay.

Columbia lost sight of the Crimson in just the second event when its All-American sophomore. Tony Corbisiero, found himself swamped in the 1000-yd. free by a Harvard threesome of Ted Chappell, Courtney Roberts and Larry Countryman. Chappell, also one of the aquamen's premier butterflyers, switched on his smooth stroke at the very beginning, took the lead he never relinquished, and cruised into the finish at 9:25.84.

While notching victories from both the one- and three-meter boards, Crimson sophomore Jeff Mule established himself as the man to beat among Ivy League divers. Paul Opperman, Columbia's number one entrant gave Mule a run for his money on the low board, but couldn't quite catch the Princeton, N.J., native. Mechanical execution of the first and required forward dive afforded Mule the narrow margin that allowed him to slip past Opperman, 276.50 to 274.85.

The high point of the afternoon for the visitors came with Lincoln Djang's expected win in the 200-yd. individual medley. The much-heralded Djang, who took last year off to train for the Olympics, had to wage a fierce battle with Harvard's fast-finishing Tom Verdin. Only Verdin's weak performance in the butterfly allowed Djang to eke out the win. Djang later followed Countryman home in the 500-yd. free.

Staking his claim with a first place in the 200-yd. backstroke, Bott is the favorite to fill the hole left on the Crimson roster with the retirement of two-time Eastern Champion junior Ron Raikula.

Senior co-captain Geoff Seelen won his first 100-yd. free-style ever in collegiate dual meet competition. He finished third just behind Corbisiero and winner Eric Schott, and just ahead of C.J. Appleton, thus ruining Columbia's only chance of the afternoon for a one-two-three finish. THE NOTEBOOK: Forget that he finished a distant sixth in both his events, Crimson diver Jack Ingari turned in one of the finest showings of the afternoon. Slated to see time at center for this year's varsity gridders, Ingari suffered a knee injury in pre-season camp, and until a few weeks ago was just another injured football player.

Seeing Ingari practicing some of the maneuvers he learned in one lone year of high school competition diving, coach John Walker invited him to tryout for the third slot behind Mule and Karl Illig. After making, the squad, Ingari then managed to learn a full list of collegiate dives in just five weeks--even the twists, which he'd never tried before.

HARVARD 77, COLUMBIA 36 at Cambridge

400-yd. medley relay--1. HARVARD 3:31.29 (Phillips 54.6, Putterman 59.9, Meler 51.0, Miao 45.8); 2. Columbia 3:35.96 (Zielinski 56.3, Clew 60.1, Djang 51.8, Robinson 47.8)

1000-yd. freestyle--1. Chappell (H) 9:25:84; 2. Roberts (H) 9:31:67.

200-yd. freestyle--1. Hackett (H) 1:41.03; 2. Lockman (H) 1:44.55.

50-yd. freestyle--1. Malo (H) 21.34; 2. Carbone (H) 21.63.

200-yd. individual medley--1. Djang (C) 1:55.65; 2. Verdin (H) 1:55.89.