For the Harvard aquawomen on Saturday, the worst surprise was no surprise. In spite of the fond hopes of coach Stephanie Walsh and her charges, the Princeton Tigers made the trip from New Jersey as heavy favorites, and then back- and breaststroked their way to an 82-49 victory.

In an unusual three-way format, Harvard competed against both Princeton and Northwestern University simultaneously. The aquawomen lost the second one, too, falling to the Chicagoans by a 75-56 tally.

Respectable

The two losses lower the team's season mark to a still-respectable 7-3, while Princeton is still undefeated at 6-0.

Compared to last year's Princeton meet, when the aquawomen lost almost every event, Saturday's competition was an obvious and dramatic improvement.

Flyer

The most impressive Crimson performance of the day came from freshman superstar Norma Barton, whose 2:05.11 in the 200 butterfly set a new Ivy record and qualified her for National AIAW's. Barton almost routinely won the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard fly.

Barton was ably backed up in the butterfly events by teammate Kathleen McCloskey, who finished second overall in the 200 with a 2:06.40. In the 100-yard race, McCloskey took third overall and grabbed second against Princeton competition.

The most exciting race of the afternoon, and a very impressive performance, came when long-distance specialist Maureen Gildea took the 1000-yard freestyle in an Ivy record-setting time of 10:20.49, only one-hundredth of a second ahead of Princeton rival Ann Habernigg, who touched the pads in 10:20.50.

Photo Finish

Gildea trailed Habernigg by as much as three yards at the 750-yd. mark, but steadily closed the gap until the race was dead even with 25 yards left. The close final length of the race brought the crowd to its feet and an enthusiastic contingent from the Harvard Band to its horns, and Gildea narrowly outtouched her Princeton opponent.

The Crimson diving corps of Pam Stone and Adriana Holy provided the only other wins of the afternoon for the aquawomen. Holy tallied 238.75 to triumph over Princeton's Mary Linser in the one-meter competition, while Stone recorded 249.95 to run away with the three-meter event.

The rest of the meet, though, belonged to Princeton, with the NU Wildcats picking up most of the pieces.

Despite hopes that "cats can't swim," the Tigers and Wildcats swam past anything that even remotely reminded the crowd of Crimson.

Unlike previous meets, not only the back- and breaststrokers were outclassed; this time, even the normally powerful freestyle sprinters had their problems.

The team takes to the road this week when it competes in the Greater Boston Championships at Northeastern and faces Yale in New Haven on Saturday.

PRINCETON 82, HARVARD 49

NORTHWESTERN 75, HARVARD 56

PRINCETON 93, NORTHWESTERN 38

at Blodgett Pool

400-yd. medley relay--1. Princeton (Beth Mauer, Charlotee Tiedemann, Donna Goldbloom, Nancy Conroy) 4:05.82; 2. Northwestern 4:06.85; 3. Harvard 4:22.98