Splashy Preview

Princeton's Dillon pool was packed to the rafters last week for the N.C.A.A. swimming championship. But few in the crowd had eyes for Michigan's Australian-born John Davies in the 200-yd. breaststroke event. Almost everyone was watching the front-running battle between Princeton's Bob Brawner, the world record holder, and Ohio State's Jerry Holan. Then, at the halfway mark, rangy (6 ft. 3 in., 200 Ibs.) Davies began to move.

Surging through the water with tremendous power, Davies cut down Brawner's lead. At the 150-yard mark, Davies took over the lead. Sprinting all the way to the finish, he won by a full five yards over Ohio's Holan. Princeton's Brawner, who had never been beaten in intercollegiate competition, was third. Davies' time: 2 :12.9, beating Brawner's world record by two-tenths of a second. The next night everyone was watching Davies as he whipped the field in the 100-yd. event in 58.8, breaking Brawner's intercollegiate record by more than a second.

Davies' upsetting feat, in what amounted to a splashy preview of the Olympic tryouts, was typical of the meet. Though Davies will swim for Australia in the Olympics, the U.S. could gain considerable solace from other upsets and sparkling times. Among them:

¶ Ford Konno's 1.,500-meter free-style performance in whipping Australia's (and Yale's) Defending Champion John Marshall in meet record time of 18:15.5, breaking Marshall's record by more than three seconds. Hawaii's wiry (5 ft. 7 in., 145-lb.) star, who swims for Ohio State, edged the U.S.'s (and Yale's) 1948 Olympic winner, Jimmy McLane, by six feet, Marshall by 60. Konno also won the 440, placed third in the 220.

¶ Burwell ("Bumpy") Jones's 15O-yd. individual medley (backstroke, breast stroke, free style) intercollegiate record performance. The versatile Michigan freshman swam the medley in 1:29.8, one second faster than the record held by Joe Verdeur, the U.S.'s 1948 Olympic breaststroke winner.

¶ Dick Cleveland's winning sprint in the 50-yd. free style in 0:22.3, two-tenths off the American record, and his second place in the 100, behind Michigan's defending champion, Clark Scholes. Cleveland, another Hawaiian who swims for Ohio State, "will win the Olympic loo-meter this summer," according to enthusiastic Mike Peppe, Ohio State and Olympic coach.

As usual, the N.C.A.A. team battle was between Defending Champion Yale and Ohio State, which lost the title to Yale a year ago. Thanks to 41 points from its freshman swimmers, Peppe's Ohio Staters ("the best team I've had in 22 years of coaching") beat Yale, minus its freshmen, 94-81.