Timers stared at their watches in pop-eyed disbelief. Spectators flipped the pages of month-old A.A.U. swimming handbooks and decided that they had wasted the purchase price. The pool at Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium was boiling with record breakers. Before the national indoor championships ended, every American short-course mark except the 440-yd. and 1,500-meter freestyle records was suddenly out of date. Among the new champions:
Charlie Bittick 21, a member of the Olympic water polo team, whose rugged shoulders and arms, developed in one of the world's toughest games, made him the meet's only...
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