After some time off and a trip to Puerto Rico, the mens and womens swimming and diving team competed this last Saturday in a meet against M.I.T. The diving events were held at the M.I.T. Athletics Center while the swimming events were conducted here at Brandeis. Both teams lost to their opponents, but the meet was a good way to get some good competition and swimming in before upcoming meets. Charlotte Rea, 08 was able to qualify for the national NCAA tournament and many athletes won their respective events. The competition was all around a good predatory meet and a way to get challenging competition before difficult meets in the future.
The womens team put in a great performance on Saturday, but it was not enough to defeat their opponents. The final score for the women was 164 to 128, but many individual performances and standouts predominated the day.
Perhaps the biggest personal achievement of the meet for Brandeis came with the qualifying times met by Rea. Although Rea received her first division three loss of the season, she was still able to meet the qualifying standard for the one meter diving event, and win and qualify in the three meter event as well.
Two other Brandeis women were also able to capture victories in their respective events. First-year Rachel Sawicki 10 came in first place in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:18.19 while her teammate and classmate Dasha Hentoff 10 won the 200 yard backstroke with a time just over 2:40.
The results of the mens swimming team were similar to the women as they too fell to their M.I.T. opponents. The finals score was 158 to 118 but individual standouts were apparent throughout the day as three Brandeis athletes were able to win their respective events.
Bobby Morse 09 was able to win the 500 meter freestyle with a time of just over 5 minutes. Two first year teammates also stood-out for their performances on Saturday. James Liu 10 took the 200 yard butterfly with a time of just over two minutes while classmate Justin Wellins 10 won the 100 yard freestyle event with a time of 49.42 seconds. Although the men eventually lost against their opponents, individual performances indicate the good showing the Judges had this past Saturday.
The teams seemed satisfied with their performances against M.I.T. and are using the results to gauge their future opportunities at upcoming meets. Rookie Ed Sanabria 10 was quoted as saying after our training trip and a lot of hard work, we had a really strong showing. He went on to state that the team is looking forward to our UAA meet in early February.
This meet follows the teams semester opener against Wheaton College where they beat their opponents by a sizeable margin, ending the meet with a 115-77 finish. The mens and womens teams go on to compete at a few more meets until finally ending their regular season with the UAA championships at Case Western University. The meet last Saturday was a great way to get some competitive swimming under their belts and help prepare the teams for the difficult meets to come.
