Since last publication, the Brandeis Judges’ men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have participated in two meets. Firstly, on Nov. 3, the teams traveled to Worcester, Massachusetts, to compete in a multi-meet hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) against three other teams for the men and four other teams for the women. Here, the women’s team was able to score one win despite three losses, while the men’s team lost all three of the meets during the event. Then, on Nov. 10, the teams hosted the Bentley University Falcons, with both the men and women facing a loss.
Aside from Brandeis, the men’s and women’s teams from Babson College, WPI and the Coast Guard Academy as well as solely the women’s team from Smith College, participated in the WPI multi-meet. The women’s team won in their meet with Smith, though both the men and women lost against WPI, Coast Guard and Babson. The scores for the men’s meets was L, 81-204 against Babson, L, 65-222 against WPI and L, 63-216 against Coast Guard. For the women’s meets, the scores were W, 163.5-122.5 against Smith, L, 120-147 against Babson, L, 119-168 against WPI and L, 62-205 against Coast Guard.
During the event, Benjamin Lee ’26 set the pace for the men’s team with two second-place finishes. Lee swam 1:46.80 in the 200-yard freestyle and 1:59.20 in the 200-yard individual medley—0.35 seconds short of a win. Monica Iizuka ’24 led the women’ team, also finishing second place in two events: the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:01.21 (0.5 seconds away from first place) and the 200-meter medley relay, where she anchored the finishing time of 1:52.22. Also part of this relay were Anastasia Bekou ’25, Becca Kaplan ’26 and Chloe Gonzalez ’25. Iizuka also scored fourth place in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 56.83 seconds. Sam Bundy ’26 scored a second-place finish in the men’s 200-meter butterfly with a time of 2:01.58, edging the winning time by only 0.47 seconds. Gonzalez came in second place in the women’s 500-meter freestyle with a time of 5:25.90, about four seconds behind the winning time. Notably, the men’s team was missing All-American Sam Dienstag ’24, who could not attend the event due to an illness.
After the multi-meet event, the Judges’ men’s swimming and diving team stood at a record of 1-3 while the women’s swimming and diving teams stood at a record of 1-4.
A week later, Waltham’s two universities clashed in the swimming pool at Brandeis. Bentley was victorious in both the men’s and women’s meets, scoring 195-85 against the Brandeis men’s teams and 174-117 against the women’s teams. Overall, the Judges won six of the total of 32 events, while Bentley took the remaining 26. Four of the Brandeis wins were by the women and two were by the men. The Judges’ winning swimmers were Iizuka, Lee, Bundy and Gonzalez. Iizuka won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:00.87. Bekou was a close second in this event with a time of 1:01.36. Lee won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:45.68—a win of nearly one second. Bundy won the 200-meter butterfly event with a time of 2:01.04, only a second and a half in front of the second-place finisher. Gonzalez was victorious by a full second in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 54.13 seconds.
The Judges’ women’s team also won both relay events. In the 200-meter medley relay, the team of Bekou, Kaplan, Gonzalez and Iizuka finished with a time of 1:51.09. At every split of the relay, the Brandeisians were ahead, and won with 1.75 seconds to spare. In the 200-meter free relay, the team of Gonzalez, Bekou, Iizuka and Jenna Wild ’26 won with a time of 1:42.82—three full seconds ahead of Bentley.
After the meet, the Judges’ men’s swimming and diving team stood at a record of 1-4 while the women’s swimming and diving teams stood at a record of 1-5.
The Judges’ swimming and diving teams will return on Nov. 18 to travel to Coast Guard.
