CMC75 Moments: 1959 Men's Swimming and Diving Sweeps Future SCIAC Foes

Great Moments from 75 Years of Athletics
1959 Men's Swim & Dive: Stags Go Undefeated Against SCIAC Teams

In its first year of competition, Claremont-Mudd competed as an independent before being allowed to join the SCIAC the following year. The Stags swimming and diving team, though, which contributed to a 1958 SCIAC Championship as members of the Pomona-Claremont Sagehens before the split, sent a message to their future league opponents. Claremont-Mudd won all six meets against other SCIAC teams on its way to a 14-3 overall record (with the only losses coming to modern Division I programs UCLA, Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton).

The list of wins recorded by the 1959 team included two victories over their former teammates at Pomona (51-32 and 59-25), while the closest league win came in the season finale with a narrow 47-39 win over Occidental. The Stags also won a dramatic non-league meet with UC Riverside by only two points, as it came down to the final relay. 

Numerous school records were set during the 1959 seasons, as Stags passed marks that athletes had achieved while competing with Pomona. Senior Clark Booth set CMC school 200 and 400 freestyle records, Rick Morse set the butterfly records, Al Garner set the breaststroke records, and Mike Harvey set the 100 backstroke record. Booth and Morse shared the team MVP honor, Al Garner won the Most Valuable Freshman, and Allen was chosen as the team's Most Improved.

Clark Booth:

I do have very fond memories of our Undefeated 1959 swim season, however, after this number of years many of them are obviously a bit vague. In that it was the first year that we had competed as Claremont-Harvey Mudd, the entire team was truly pumped, excited and totally dedicated to doing their very best, which was absolutely demonstrated by winning those first six SCIAC meets on our way to the 14-3 overall record. The larger schools such as U.C.L.A., Long Beach and Fullerton did defeat us which truly was very disappointing.

We were very fortunate to have Jesse Cone as our coach in those years as he was truly exceptional in mentoring, constantly encouraging and inspiring the entire team. Coach Cone instilled in us the attitude of "Don't worry about winning, simply do the very best you can and you will win every time."

The members of the frosh team joining the varsity in 1959 was certainly a great aid to the team and I do remember outstanding swimmers such as co-captain Larry Greenberg, Ron Williamson, Bill Robinson and Dave Allen. Rick Morse and Dave Smith were both quite versatile and exceptional team members.

I do like and appreciate a short quote I heard some time ago that was: "Victories mean very little without having those you love around to celebrate" and we certainly did have that throughout the entire year.

1958-59 CMS Men's Swimming Roster
Head Coach: Jesse Cone
Rick Adams (Fr., all strokes, CMC)
Dave Allen (So., free/fly/back, CMC)
Clark Booth (Sr., free/fly, CMC)
Steve Breunheim (Fr., breast, CMC)
Al Garner (Fr., breast/free, CMC)
Larry Greenberg (Sr., free, CMC)
Mike Harvey (So., all strokes, HMC)
Rick Morse (Jr., free/fly/back, CMC)
Bill Robinson (So., free/back, CMC)
Ed Rosensen (Fr., manager, CMC)
Dave Smith (So., breast/free, CMC)
Ron Williamson (Jr., free/dive, CMC)