The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams left mid-week for Chicago to compete in the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship, hosted by the University of Chicago. The team will look to take home wins against seven schools within the conference: Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, Emory University, New York University, University of Rochester, University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis.
Brandeis’ men’s team entered the UAA tournament off a three-meet-win streak, extending from Jan. 21-28. The team defeated Keene State, Bridgewater State, and Clark University. The women, however, did not have as much luck in the past few weeks, going 2-2 over the same two weekends.
Last year, the Judges travelled to Rochester for the 2016 UAA Championships. On each day, the men’s team finished in eighth place. The top-performing individual for the men’s team was Edan Zitelny ’17, who had two top-20 finishes in the final day of events. This year, Zitelny will return for his final UAA Championship meet.
The women’s team had a similar finish, ending each day of the tournament at eighth place. Kylie Herman ’19, a rookie during last year’s UAA Conference Championship, was the only women’s swimmer to reach the evening events in the last two days of competition. She will return to the UAAs for a second opportunity to compete.
The team looks to improve upon last year’s results, with a new four-day format. The team will compete from Wednesday, Feb. 8 to the evening of Saturday, Feb. 11, where the final events will occur.
On Feb. 8 in Chicago, the Championships held the preliminary heats and finals for only one event: the one-meter dive. Unfortunately, Brandeis did not have a competing diver in the event, and the Judges fell to last place after the first day, earning zero points for the one event.
NYU ended the first day on top, with 78 total points, and Carnegie Mellon was the next closest in competition, with 61 points for the second place spot.
All the teams returned to the pool at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 9 to begin the preliminary trials of nine different events—eight swim events and one diving event.
The finals of 11 events took place on Thursday night, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The Championships extend through Saturday, Feb. 11. The final round of events will begin at 5:30 p.m.
By press time, the results of the final rounds on Feb. 9 had not yet been released. The Judges will look to face off against the other seven UAA member schools and improve upon eighth-place finishes from last year.
