At the beginning of February break, the Brandeis Mens and Womens Swimming Teams competed in the New England Championships. The men competed against 14 other teams, while the women competed against 21 other teams.
On day one, the women came out of the gate strong with a sixth place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. However, the women only finished in the top six three other times.
Sharon Makowsky 06 finished third in the 100-yard butterfly (1:00.97), while Sarah Evans 06 came in fourth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:20.38). To finish the day, the women swam to a sixth in the 400-yard medley relay. At the end of day one, the women were in sixth place.
The mens team also fared well at the beginning, finishing third in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:30.12). Hal Grossman 07 then splashed his way to second place in the 500-yard freestyle (4:50.84).
After a second place finish in the 400-yard medley relay, in which Nick Rice 08, Matt Lerman 07, Todd Berman 07, and Grossman combined for a 3:44.57 time, Brandeis found itself in second place at the conclusion of the first day.
Day two for the womens team saw two top three finishes. Makowsky finished third in the 400-yard individual medley (4:44.94). Lalin Anik 06 had the best showing of any Brandeis women swimmer at that point when she swam a 50-yard butterfly in 27.73.
Rice, Davidson, Lerman, and Berman finished third in the 200-yard medley relay with a blazing time of 1:40.73. Mike Rubin 09, Davidson, Bobby Morse 09, and Grossman grabbed third place in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a mark of 7:29.92.
The Brandeis women did not have their best performance on the third and final day of competition. The bright spot of the day was when Makowsky took home honors in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:13.83, only two seconds short of the school record. The women finished the tournament with 384 points, good enough for seventh place out of 22 teams.
The mens team finished the competition strong. Berman finished third in the 100-yard freestyle (49.04). Brandeis finished third and fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke on the efforts of Davidson (2:19.13) and Lerman (2:20.75).
Grossman finished second in the next event, the 200-yard butterfly, in 2:03.18. Rice followed up with a fourth place finish in the 100-yard individual medley (58.08).
In the final event of the day, the mens relay won the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:13.91, led by Lerman, Berman, Rice, and Grossman. Overall the Brandeis mens swimming team finished second out of 15 teams with 357 points.
UAA Championship Recap:
Early last month, the Brandeis Mens and Womens Swimming Teams traveled to Georgia to compete in the UAA championships. Both the men and the women finished in eighth place out of eight teams. Nobody for Brandeis finished in the top four in any event. There were three fifth place finishes. Hal Grossman 07 finished fifth in the 200-yard freestyle (1:44.14). Matt Lerman 07 finished fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke (59.68). Lalin Anik 06, Britt Cindric 08, Sharon Makowsky 06, and Sarah Evans 06 finished fifth in the 200-yard medley relay (1:56.24).
