''This is tradition,'' junior Jeff (KJ) Klein said. ''For the first home meet we [the upperclassmen] always do interesting haircuts [on the first-years]. It's been going on for quite a few years.''

Sporting every hairstyle from the Three Stooges to the Communist Party's hammer and sickle, the first-years played a key role in Sunday's victory, responsible for four individual successes. The best of all was going 1-2-3 on the 1000-yard freestyle, an event where first-year Mike Bazylewicz improved his personal best time from Friday to 9:46.17, almost 10 seconds ahead of teammate first-year Nick Clements. Bazylewicz also won the 500-yard freestyle, at 4:44.92. First-year Charles Catanach garnered winning times in the 100-yard freestyle (47.91) and the 200-yard backstroke (1:54.18). Sophomore Arpad Sebe also chipped in, taking the 200-yard individual medley in 1:55.78.

The Lions also got both relays. The foursome of first-year Reid Evans, Sebe, Catanach, and first-year Scott Ingram won the 400-yard medley in 3:29.92, and Evans, Ingram, and co-captains junior Colin Shannahan and senior Matt Schultz won the 400-yard freestyle in 3:10.57. But the biggest story of the day was Mark Fichera.

With ex-diving phenom Daniel Brown, CC '00, who had been filling in for Head Diving Coach Gordon Spencer at Harvard with the women watching from the sidelines, the senior co-captain made history on Sunday, sweeping both diving events and setting a new varsity record off the one-meter board. Fichera's score of 335.70 surpassed the previous mark of 329.85, held by Marc Braveman, CC '93.

''Mark's a huge part of this team,'' Head Swimming Coach Jim Bolster said. ''He's a great talent, and he's a testament to this [diving] program, in particular to Gordon's coaching ability Mark came in as a freshman with some talent, and he's just developed every year.''

The entire day was slight redemption for the embarrassment suffered at Harvard on Friday, where, in a three-way dual meet, the Lions fell to the Crimson 232-68 and to Army 166-134.

''I don't think we really anticipated we were gonna beat Harvard,'' Bolster said of the five-time EISL champions, ''but I felt like we had a good shot at beating Army, and I guess quite frankly I thought we would. So Friday night was pretty disappointing. We didn't swim particularly well, so, just from an overall morale standpoint this was very worth the win. You always want to win [but] it's our home opener and I think that [it was important] just in terms of not so much confidence, just in getting a better sense of where we are at this point in the season.''

In Cambridge, the Crimson owned both Columbia and Army, not only placing first in all 14 races, but also placing second in every race but two. Columbia did manage to save a few against Army, though. Sebe triumphed in the 400-yard individual medley (4:09.32) and in the 100-yard breaststroke (58.89), Evans took the 100-yard backstroke (52.46) and the 200-yard backstroke (1:54.75), and Catanach won the 100-yard butterfly (52.79). The team of Evans, Sebe, Ingram, and Catanach also beat Army in the 200-yard medley relay (1:35.58).

However, Columbia shone in the diving overall, as Fichera soared over his opponents off the one- and three-meter boards, setting a new school record off the one-meter with a score of 343.60. This record is classified in a different category than that used on Sunday because of a new system of diving regulations, first used this year, that allows for the possibility of higher overall scores. Sunday's dive was in accordance with the old regulations.

''We take [Mark] for granted,'' said junior Jason Adelstein, ''but he's saved us so many points. He's definitely our ace in the hole. Whenever we need him, he's always there for us. Even when he's off, he still wins.''

However, Bolster said Sunday that the team as a whole ''still [has] a long way to go if we're gonna win more in the league. [UMass] wasn't a league meet. Our next league meet is Penn. If we're gonna beat Penn, we're gonna have to swim a lot faster than we did [against UMass]. What we did today was fine for today. We still have about two and a half weeks to get ready for Penn. [Plus] we have an invitational meet at Notre Dame between now and then as well, and that will be another chance for us to kind of gauge where we are heading into the end of the semester.''