It was billed as the meet for which the Harvard men's swimming team had waited a very long time. As it turned out, it was nothing to get too nervous about, as the aquamen walloped LaSalle College, 77-36, in Philadelphia last night.

Coach Joe Bernal and his troops had waited two years for the chance to face stiff competition outside the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL), where the Crimson have racked up two consecutive undefeated seasons and are gunning for a third.

But the Explorers, who may have been looking ahead to their conference championship meet next weekend, could not muster enough muscle to pose a serious challenge to Harvard. The aquamen grabbed nine of 13 first-place finishes in the meet.

Going for the Throat

Of those nine, six were in the opening seven events of the evening, as the Crimson flexed its version of muscle to wipe up LaSalle very early.

In the 400 medley relay, Senior Captain Ted Chappell repeated one of his patented come-from-behind anchor legs to touch out the Explorers' Paul Jarvis, the Eastern Seaboard titlist in the 50 free last year for the Harvard win, in 3:29.4.

Freshman Tim Ford and senior Captain Larry Countryman followed Chappell's momentum-setting performance with a one-two sweep in the 1000, finishing in 9:34.1 and 9:36.9, respectively.

As in the Crimson's EISL contest against Princeton two weeks ago, Bernal used Ford--who arrived at Harvard from Australia in January--in the 1000 and placed Chappell in the 200 free, the meet's next event, to seal Harvard's victory. The Eliot House resident came through with 1:43.3 clocking, followed by senior Andy Lockman at 1:43.6.

In the 50 free, sophomore Bob Hrabchak burned up the final 25 yards to touch out LaSalle's Jarvis and Bruce Schaeffer in: 21.8.

It wasn't until the 100 free more than half-way through the meet, that the Explorers collected their first individual win. Schaeffer came through to beat junior Bob Tyler and Hrabchak in: 47.9.

In diving, the Crimson's scores suffered from extremely hard boards in Philadelphia, but All-American Dan Watson managed to lead a Harvard sweep with scores of 327.1 on the one-meter board and 360.4 one the three-meter.

The aquamen face Penn--one of the weakest teams in the EISL--today at 2 p.m. Harvard Assistant Coach Ken Oberg last night described the match-up with the Quakers as "an off meet" for Harvard. He added the emphasis will be on increasing the number of Crimson qualifiers for the Eastern Seaboard's in early March.