Over winter break, the varsity swimming and diving team returned to a deserted Brandeis campus on Dec. 26, 2015 to continue training, a session that consisted of five days on campus before a flight took them to Puerto Rico for a training bootcamp. Captain and Brandeis Hoot Editor-in-Chief Theresa Gaffey ’16 expressed that “training on campus during this time is always pretty hard because it’s so cold out and there’s nobody around on campus. However, once we get to Puerto Rico, the training doesn’t seem so bad and everyone’s spirits are up.”
Both the men’s and the women’s teams spent the break doing two-a-day practices and strength training to prepare for the end of the season. In Puerto Rico, the team had little time for tourist adventures, practicing twice a day both in and out of the water, rounding out the day with yoga to calm their bodies after a day of physical stress. “During practice we do dryland (land-based strength and conditioning exercises), running and of course a lot of swimming,” said Gaffney.
The team had one rare afternoon off after a long practice in the morning, and used the opportunity to visit Old San Juan. In past years, the team has also visited El Yunque National Rainforest.
The team returned to Brandeis after a week in Puerto Rico, ready to compete and prepared to perform their best for the second half of the season.
Upon the swim team’s return from Puerto Rico, both the men’s and women’s teams competed against Colby College in their first meet of the new year. The meet resulted in a pair of losses: 94-200 on the men’s side and 68-201 on the women’s.
Individually, Brandeis’ Joanna Murphy ’17 took two of the events for the women. Murphy won both the 1000 and the 500 by more than three seconds.
The men’s team won three total events. Cameron Braz ’17 won the 200 freestyle only a couple hundredths of a second ahead of a Colby swimmer. Taku Harada ’18 also got a win for the Judges in the 200 backstroke, and Zach Diamond ’17 won the 200 butterfly. The men also took second in the 1000 freestyle and third in the 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle, the 50, the 100 and the 200 individual medley.
The women quickly rallied with a win, competing in another meet against Merrimack College on Jan. 12 at home. The Judges scored 126 over Merrimack’s 84. Kylie Hermann ’19 led the Judges with wins in three different events—the 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley. Murphy again took the wins in both the 500 and the 1000. Fallon Bushee ’16 won both the breaststroke events, and Abby Damsky ’18 added a win in the 50 freestyle.
The men’s and women’s swim teams both face off against Trinity College from Connecticut in their next meet. The meet is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 16 at 1 p.m. at home.
