PRINCETON, N.J.--It's hard to find a turning-point in a massacre like Harvard's 86-27 demolition of Princeton, unless it was the Tigers' decision to get out of bed Saturday morning. Maybe it was the 1-2 finish of Larry Countryman and Courtney Roberts in the 1000-yd. freestyle. Maybe it was the dynamic duo of Bobby Hackett and Ted Chappell in the 200-yd. free, shutting out Tiger ace "Beaver" O'Hara. But the best candidate lies in last year's shocking upset in Cambridge.

No member of this year's Harvard men's swim team has lost more than one dual meet in his collegiate career. That one loss came in last year's Princeton match-up, and this year, Coach Bernal's boys paid the Tigers back with interest.

Showing off their new warm-up capes, the aquamen filed into the meet monk-like, with the capes draped over their heads, their chanting echoing in a Princeton pool that could probably rival a few monasteries in age. And when the capes were dropped, the Crimson showed off a swimming prowess that left the Tigers wishing for capes to cover their own heads.

The Princeton aquamen could not pick up a single first in an individual event, and their only first-place points, in the 400-yd. medley relay, came after the Crimson team was disqualified for Jim Carbone's illegal kick on the breaststroke leg.

Harvard-Princeton meets have traditionally been decided in the final event, the 400-yd. free relay, but by that time in this year's meet, the only real prize was a personal victory for co-captain Hackett.

In last year's dual meet, Hackett had swum within one tenth of a second of his lifetime best in the 100-yd. freestyle, only to lose to the Tigers' O'Hara and Andy Saltzman. In the Eastern Championships of three years past Hackett had swum the anchor leg of the 400-yd. free relay, which in 1978 clinched Princeton's Eastern title. So Hackett had a score to settle, and he was given his chance.

After three legs of the relay, Princeton's Dan Sykes and Harvard's Chappell came to the wall in a dead heat. On the find leg it was Hackett against O'Hara, captain against captain, with only pride at stake. The pair hit the water even and matched each other stroke for stroke for 75 yards. Then the Crimson senior pulled away for a victory he called "excellent, just excellent."

But no one race can really tell the story of this meet. Every contest was a story in itself.

In the 1000-yd. freestyle Roberts swam four seconds under his lifetime best to grab second place behind teammate Countryman. In the 200-yd. free Chappell did much the same, becoming only the second swimmer in Harvard history to go under 1:40 and finishing second behind Hackett, who broke his own pool record.

The 50-yd. free saw another Harvard 1-2, with Mike Miao and Carbone continuing their dominance of that event, and the 200-yd. individual medley proved the closest race of the day.

Mike Coglin, former Eastern champion in this event, was Harvard's top hope, but it looked for a while as though Princeton might finally break into the winner's circle. Tiger Mike Smith broke both the Princeton and pool records with his swim, but so did Coglin, with a time that was two one-hundredths of a second faster than Smith's.

"There was never any doubt in my mind that I had him," Coglin commented after pulling out the win because he had the longer fingernails.

In the one-meter diving, Crimson freshman Karl Illig posted a lifetime best and the highest score in the Ivy League so far this year to take the win and join teammate Jeff Mule in qualifying for the NCAA Championships in March.

In the 200-yd. butterfly, Chappell recorded another personal best to beat his summertime teammate, Princeton's Mark Beisler.

Another 1-2 finish by Julian Bott and Dave Phillips in the 200-yd. backstroke clinched the Harvard win and left the 1-2 finish of Hackett and Countryman in the 500-yd. free as mere icing on the cake. The three-meter diving saw no personal bests or individual records, but Harvard still managed to sweep the top two spots in what Mule called a "clever crash contest."