After a few away meets to start the season, the Brandeis swimming and diving team hosted their first home meet of the season on Nov. 19. The meet was against the United States Coast Guard Academy in a rematch from last year. Last year, the men’s team lost 185-97, while the women’s team lost 185-93.
The men’s team was led by junior Sam Dienstag ’24. Dienstag finished with three first-place finishes on the day. He first won the 1000-yard freestyle event with a time of 9:29.33. His time was 24 seconds faster than second place. Dienstag followed that performance with a first-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle event, with a time of 48.37. He narrowly beat first-year Eric Xiao ’26 by .21 seconds. Dienstag kept going and won the 500-yard freestyle event as well. His 4:41.55 time was roughly seven seconds faster than second place. In his final race of the day, he competed in the 200-yard freestyle relay event with senior James Smith ’23, sophomore Andrew Ngo ’25 and first-year Benjamin Lee ’26. The group finished in second place with a time of 1:30.10, which was just three seconds away from first place. Lee also had a strong day. He finished first in the 200-yard freestyle event with a time of 1:46.31. Later that day, he also competed in the 200-yard individual medley (IM), where he finished in third place with a time of 2:02.96. Ngo and Xiao also grouped together for the 200-yard medley relay event with teammates Smith and junior Ryan Schulken ’24. They finished in 1:38.85 in second place. First-year Sam Bundy ’26 won his first race of the day in the 200-yard butterfly event. He finished in 2:00.98. Even with these great performances, the men’s team ultimately fell to Coast Guard 102-169.
Junior Monica Iiuzaka ’24 led the way for the women’s team. In her first event of the day, she competed with first-year Audrey Teo ’26, senior Bailey Gold ’23 and senior Ema Rennie ’23 for the 200-yard medley relay. The group finished first with a time of 1:50.98. Iiuzaka also finished in first place in the 100-yard backstroke event with a time of 1:00.69. She followed that event with a win in the 200-yard backstroke event. Her final time of that race was 2:13.39, which was three seconds ahead of second place. First-year Nicole Caruso ’26 swept the distance events. In the 1000-yard freestyle event, she finished in first with a time of 10:57.01. Later, she competed in the 500-yard freestyle event and finished in first again in 5:20.82. For her single non-freestyle event of the day, Caruso finished in second place in the 200-yard IM event with a time of 2:14.76. She was just .15 seconds behind first place. Gold also had a solid day. She finished first in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:11.45, which was 10 seconds ahead of second place. In her next event, Gold finished in second place in the 100-yard butterfly event. Her 58.56 time was just .58 seconds behind first place. Additionally, Gold competed in the 200-yard freestyle relay with first-year Jenna Wild ’26, sophomore Chloe Gonzalez ’25 and Rennie. They just barely finished behind first place with a time of 1:42.22. Wild also finished in second place in the 200-yard freestyle event in 2:01.60. Rennie added a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.05. In diving, first-year Summer Coronesi ’26 placed second in the 1-meter diving event with a score of 196.80. Though the team had a strong overall performance, the women’s team fell to Coast Guard 111-167.
Up next is the Gompei Invitational hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The event starts on Dec. 4 and goes on for three days. This will be both the last meet for the men’s and women’s teams before 2023. Last year, they combined to finish in seventh with 3400 points.
