The Brandeis swimming and diving teams went down in defeat on Wednesday, losing very close meets at Wheaton College. The Wheaton Lyons defeated the Judges by a score of 118-113 in the men’s meet and 125-118 in the women’s meet.
The Brandeis men started very strongly with a solid victory in the opening 400-yard medley relay; the team of Justin Wellins ‘10, Marc Eder ‘12, Aaron Bennett ‘11, and Michael Rubin ‘09 finished with a time of 3:43.96, over 8 seconds ahead of the top Wheaton team. Robert Morse ‘09 followed the relay with a 10:25.85 1000-yard freestyle, giving him an 11 second margin over Wheaton’s Edward Gillie ‘11.
Brandeis went on to win 9 of the 11 swimming events, the only exceptions being the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke. Among the other standout performances were Aaron Bennett’s 1:59.67 200-yard butterfly and Marc Eder’s 2:17.17 200-yard breaststroke. Brandeis was able to finish strongly as well, as Joshua Allgaier ‘12, Eli Tukachinsky 11, Robert Morse ‘09, and James Liu ‘10 swam the 400-yard freestyle relay team to a 13-second victory.
The Judges’ lack of divers ended up hurting them most, as Wheaton picked up 26 uncontested points in the two diving events.
The Brandeis women were even more successful in claiming individual event victories, winning 10 of the 13 total events.
The 400-medley relay team turned in the most impressive performance with a new school record in their meet-opening win; Angela Chui ‘12, Hollis Viray ‘10, Siobhan Lyons ‘10, and Julia Derk ‘12 completed the race with a time of 4:07.46. The diving team was also very strong. Dana Simms ’11scored 221.40 points in the 1-meter dive and 225.00 points in the 3-meter dive to sweep both events, and Brandeis outscored Wheaton 22-16 in the dives.
It was Wheaton’s superior depth, however, that decided the final result. Wheaton took two of the top three spots in every single event besides the 3-meter dive. Particularly critical were the 50-yard freestyle, in which Wheaton swept the top three positions, and the 400-yard freestyle relay, in which Brandeis’s lone entrant finished last out of three relay teams.
The men fall to a 3-4 duel meet record on the year, and the women drop to 4-3. Both teams will see their next action on January 21st at Clark University.
