It was a question of contrasting strategies during yesterday's Harvard-Columbia men's swimming meet at Blodgett Pool.

On one side of the pool stood the Harvard team, not yet in peak condition-on purpose. Harvard opted for the conditioning strategy: shave and taper distances later in the season, when Princeton and the Easterns roll around--when the schedule means something.

On the other side, stood the Columbia team-shaven, tapered and quicker. The Lions, who have not defeated the Crimson in four years, wanted to win. Right now. Columbia chose the "quick-fix" strategy.

Final score: Columbia 75, Harvard 38.

"We came out and swam really well," Harvard Co-Captain Keith Kaplan said. "But we were swimming against a team, shaved and tapered, and psyched to win. If we would have been shaved and tapered, it would have been no contest."

Yesterday's loss closed out a three-meet 24-hour marathon for the Crimson, which began its season Saturday with a pair of wins over Navy, 64-49, and Kenyon, 71-34.

Harvard (2-1 overall, 1-1 EISL) captured three events against the Lions, with the 200 backstroke tandem of Paul Watson and Chris Kovacs leading the way for the Crimson.

Watson finished first in the event with a time of 1:54.23, while Kovacs touched in at 1:55.85 for second place.

Freshman Kevin Williams captured the 200 freestyle in 1:41.64 and Pat Healy won the one-meter diving event with 284.475 points.

Columbia's Jeff Lovell set a dual meet record when he took the 50 freestyle event in :20.99.