The Brandeis men’s and women’s swim and dive started their season strong in their first meet of the season on Oct. 16. They traveled to Hartwick College for the 16th annual Hartick Relays. Last year, the men’s and women’s teams both finished in first place at the meet.
Event one was the women’s 400-yard medley relay. Relay A saw the Judges finish first, with the relay consisting of junior Monica Iizuka ’24, freshman Jasmine Huang ’26, senior Bailey Gold ’23 and sophomore Chloe Gonzalez ’25. The group combined to finish in 4:09.5, which was nine seconds faster than second place. In relay B, the Judges also finished in first place with a time of 4:27.89. This group consisted of sophomore Anastasia Bekou ’25, sophomore Eva Parson ’25, senior Aria Smith ’23 and freshman Sophia Stewart ’26. The second event was the men’s 400-yard medley relay. For relay A, the Judges finished in first place with a team consisting of senior Benton Ferebee ’23, freshman Eric Xiao ’26, sophomore Gerald Deng ’25 and junior Ryan Schulken ’24. They finished with a time of 3:43.91. Relay B also finished in first place with a time of 3:55.54. That team contained sophomore Tal Spector ’25, junior Leone Kisler ’24, senior James Smith ’23 and freshman Joseph Parsons ’26.
The next event was the women’s 3×100 yard backstroke relay. Brandeis’ team consisted of Bekou, junior Maya Haubrich ’24 and Iizuka. They finished relay A in first place with a time of 3:05.31. Relay B was also won by the Judges, as freshman Becca Kaplan ’26, senior Becky Goodfellow ’23 and freshman Nicole Caruso ’26 finished in 3:20.48. Event four was the men’s 3×100 yard backstroke relay. For relay A, the Judges won by nine seconds with a time of 2:48.10. They were led by Spector, sophomore Andrew Ngo ’25 and Ferebee.
Event five was the women’s 3×100 yard backstroke relay. In relay A, the Judges finished in first place with a time of 3:42.01, which was 11 seconds faster than second place. The team consisted of Huang, Kaplan and Parson. Brandeis also finished in second place for relay B, with the team containing junior Alex Pickett, freshman Sophia Kriegsman ’26 and freshman D’Arcy Anselmi ’26. The next event was the men’s 3×100 yard backstroke relay. Brandeis once again won the event with a time of 3:06.06. This team consisted of Xiao, Ngo and freshman Benjamin Lee ’26.
Looking to continue the winning streak, the next event was the women’s 3×100 yard butterfly relay. The Judges finished in first, with the group consisting of Gold, senior Ema Rennie ’23 and Gonzalez. They finished with a time of 3:07.39 and were four seconds in front of second place. Freshman Audrey Teo ’26, Goodfellow and Aria Smith also won relay B with a time of 3:29.00. Event eight was the men’s 3×100 yard butterfly relay. This time the Judges narrowly finished in second place with a time of 2:46.73, as they were just .33 seconds behind first. The team contained Deng, Aria Smith and freshman AJ Martinez ’26.
Next came the women’s 850-yard freestyle relay. The Judges won in dominant fashion as they finished in 8:52.09, which was 20 seconds faster than second place. This group consisted of Rennie, Gonzalez, freshman Jenna Wild ’26 and Caruso. In the men’s 850-yard freestyle relay, they also won convincingly with a 7:41.01 finish. The group consisted of Xiao, James Smith, Lee and junior Sam Dienstag ’24 won by 36 seconds. Event 11 was the mixed 200-yard medley relay. Brandeis once again came in first for relay A, and were led by Maya, Kaplan, Deng and James Smith. They finished in 1:49.22. In relay B, the Judges also came in first, as the team consisted of Parsons, Pickett, Parson and junior Ido Petel ’24.
In the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay, the Judges narrowly finished in first place with a time of 1:44.29. The team of Gonzalez, Rennie, Caruso and Wild beat second place by two seconds for relay A. While in relay B, the margin of victory was even smaller, as the Judges won by one second. The team was made of Maya, Kriegsman, Aria Smith and Parson. Event 13 was the men’s 200-yard freestyle relay. The Judges finished in first place for relay A with a team consisting of Xiao, Dienstag, Ferebee and Ngo. Their 1:28.47 time beat second place by .38 seconds. In relay B, Brandeis finished in first place with a time of 1:32.52 and were led by freshman Solomon Skelton-Harris ’26, Schulken, Petel and freshman Eric Cherny ’26.
The next event was the women’s 3×200 yard medley relay. Brandeis won relay A again with the team consisting of Bekou, Maya and Teo. They finished in 7:10.15, which was 22 seconds faster than second place. The Judges also won relay B, with a team made up of Aria Smith, Anselmi and Stewart. Event 15 was the men’s 3×200 medley relay and the Judges finished first again. Lee, Spector and freshman Sam Bundy ’26 led the team to a 6:23.66 finish. The women’s 200-yard medley relay was next, and Brandeis won relay A with a time of 1:53.98. The team consisted of Iizuka, Huang, Gold and Rennie. Bekou, Teo, Anselmi and Stewart also won relay B with a time of 2:01.78. This event was followed by the men’s 200-yard medley relay. Brandeis finished in second with the group containing Spector, sophomore Allen Hawkins ’25, Martinez and Schulken.
Event 18 was the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay. The Judges won both relay A and B with times 3:51.12 and 4:10.49 respectively. Relay A was led by Wild, Teo, Kaplan and Caruso, while relay B was led by Anselmi, Goodfellow, Kriegsman and Stewart. In the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay, the Judges also won both relay A and B. The relay A group consisted of Dienstag, Schulken, Skelton-Harris and Ferebee and they finished in 3:19.53. Relay B was made of Parsons, Hawkins, Kisler and Cherny and they finished in 3:32.60.
The last women’s event of the day was the women’s 800-yard medley relay. They absolutely dominated this final race of the day with a time of 9:13.95, Iizuka, Huang, Gold and Wild led the team to a win that saw them 40 seconds ahead of second place. The final event of the day was the men’s 800-yard medley relay. Brandeis won this last race in extremely convincing fashion with a time of 8:21.9. This team consisting of Dienstag, Ngo, Deng and Lee won the race by a whopping 53 seconds.
Overall, the women’s team finished in first place with a score of 140. They won all ten of the races on the day. The men’s team also finished in first place with a score of 132. They were close to the clean sweep, but still won eight of ten races. The two races they didn’t finish in first, they were narrowly in second place. After a great start to the season, the two teams look to continue this success at Vassar College on Oct. 22.
