PROVIDENCE--The Harvard men's swimming team sparked a late comeback on the final day of the 1988 Eastern Championships here at Smith Swimming Center but fell just short of capturing the title.

Despite outscoring Princeton by 38 points on the final day of competition, the Crimson came up 32 points short of overtaking the Tigers, finishing in second overall by a 564-532 margin.

Princeton has now claimed two consecutive Eastern crowns after snapping Harvard's eight-year winning streak in West Point. N.Y., in 1987.

Last night, the Crimson had the leaders on the run during the final events, sweeping the last four races and shrinking a seemingly comfort-comfortable lead into almost nothing.

"There's no doubt that we outswam them." Harvard Coach Joe Bernal said. "Anybody sitting in the stands could see that. I am very proud of this team, because we have had a great season."

The Harvard streak began in the 200-yd. backstroke, when freshman Paul Watson earned his second championship of the meet, touching just ahead of senior Jeffrey Peltier to give the Crimson a 1-2 finish.

Then, swimming in the last event of his career, senior Co-Captain Bill Bird narrowly edged his competitors to snag the 200 butterfly by 13 of a second. At the meet's conclusion, Bird received the Hal Ulen Award for scoring the most points in four years of Eastern Competition.

"Billy definitely earns my Deerskin Rug award for being the biggest stud in the meet," Co-Captain Chris Smith said. "He and the freshmen just knocked the competition out of the bejeezus belt."

One of those freshmen, Scott Jaffe, capped off a perfect Eastern meet in the 200 breaststroke, taking his third title in three races with a 2:01.14 time. With his three-victory performance, Jaffe clinched the Phil Moriarity Award for being the top individual scorer in the meet.

After the breaststroke, with two events remaining, Harvard had cut Princeton's lead down to only 18 points. But one of those two was the three-meter diving, in which Princeton's Doug Kirkman completed his sweep of the diving competition with a 15-point margin of victory, increasing the Tiger lead to 38 points.