As Harvard backstroker Kathy Davis pulled ahead of Manhattanville in the first event of Saturday's meet, confident smiles spread across the Harvard bench. Because spread across the Harvard bench, Because the backstroke has proved the weakest link in the aquawomen's lineup, Davis's lead in the 400-yd. medley relay boded well for the Crimson, which rolled to an easy 87-44 win at Blodgett Pool.

Despite the fact that the aquawomen played musical events with the lineup--most swimmers competing in their second-and third-best events--the afternoon featured a raft of excellent performances from the Crimson, including seven individual victories from freshman Debbie Zimic, and sophomores Terri "Tune" Frick and Kathleen McCloskey.

Frick, primarily a butterflyer, displayed her versatility with three first places in three different events, and then swam on the victorious 800-yd. freestyle relay. Stroking to her personal bests of the season, Frick drowned all opponents in the 100-yard back, 100-yard fly and 100-yard freestyle with times of 1:09.25, 1:01.44 and 56.30 respectively.

Zimic swam well also, notching two wins in the 200-yard backstroke and the 1000-yard freestyle. After opening up an early lead in the first 100yds. of the 1000, Zimic swam a very consistent race, averaging 1:03's and 1:04's, to hold off a challenge from teammate Maureen Gildea and win with a 10:41.28.

Gildea, who has missed several meets this fall because of a series of knee operations, swam a very powerful race, closing the gap between Zimic and herself in the last 500 to finish a close second place in 10:44.21.

Commenting on Gildea's return to the lineup, coach Vicki Hays said, "Considering Maureen has only put together about a week of straight workouts since her knee troubles began, she swam amazingly well. She's in such good shape that I don't think we've lost anything from her absence."

Dominated Session

McCloskey, the dominant force in the sprint butterfly events this fall, left everyone far behind in the grueling 200-yard fly and blazed home with a season best of 2:08.07. Swimming in an outside lane, McCloskey swam a tactically strong race, going out in a fast 1:01.28 and holding on to finish with a time that qualified her for the Eastern Seaboard Championships in March. Freshman Jeanne Floyd, who had never swam the 200fly before Saturday's meet, finished with a time of 2:23.84 for third place.

Other noteworthy performances of the afternoon came from sophomore Kathy Davis and freshman Vicki Circillo. Although Davis and Floyd's one-two finish in the 400 I.M. was negated because they swam in the wrong lanes, Davis bounced back undaunted to finsih second behind Frick in the 100-yd. fly.

And Circillo, turning in her best Crimson sprint performance of the fall, took second place in the 50 free and third in the 100 with times of 26.71 and 1:00.50.

The divers performed with their usual dependable excellence, as sophomore Adriana Holy copped second in the one-meter and third in the three-meter, and junior Pam Stone won the three-meter and finished close behind Holy in the one-meter.

THE NOTEBOOK: Junior Gwen Gorman was serenaded in the middle of the meet by two flutists playing Christmas carols--a present from her Kirkland House Secret Santa... The Harvard Women's Swim Team Fan Club made its first appearance of the season and unfurled a large pink banner that read, "The Harvard Women's Swim Team Performs Better On Their Backs"... Master and Mrs. Vogt of Kirkland House came to the meet to cheer on the plethora of team members who reside in K. House.