The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams opened their seasons on Saturday afternoon with losses in a home meet versus Wheaton College, their season-opening opponent in all three years since the program was restarted in the 2012 to 2013 season. 

The weekend also included the teams’ annual Alumni Meet, held Sunday morning in Linsey Pool at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.

The women’s team dropped the meet to Wheaton 191-94 while the men were defeated 151.5-136.5, but the two teams combined for 10 individual wins.

“Our coach [reminded us] that last year we didn't come close in the loss to Wheaton, but even though this year we lost by a little bit, it is a huge accomplishment because now we are a legitimate Division III swimming and diving team—we have the numbers and we have the skill,” said diver Sam Zucker ’18.

The men’s team welcomed 11 new first-years at the meet and the women added eight new members to bring the teams’ total to 31 members, more than twice the size of last year’s team.

“There were 13 people [last year] and we now we have 19 [first-years] and 13 others. It’s so cool to have a big team and be a part of that,” said Zucker. “Now that we have the numbers, when Wheaton walked in we had over 30 people, and it was really cool.”

Max Fabian ’15 won all three of his races by a comfortable margin, taking the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10 minutes, 13.36 seconds, a full 27 seconds faster than the second-place finisher. Fabian also won the 500-yard freestyle in 4:58.93 and the 200-yard butterfly in 2:02.99.

Brian Luk ’16 also won all three of his races, taking the 50-yard freestyle in 22.42 seconds, claiming the 100-yard freestyle in 48.40 and winning the 100-yard butterfly in 54.71.

Joanna Murphy ’17 won a pair of events for the women’s squad, both in freestyle races. 

Murphy took the 200-yard freestyle in 2:01.39 and the 500-yard freestyle in 5:27.19. Her victory in the 500-yard freestyle was almost 20 seconds faster than the second-place competitor.

A pair of first-years gathered wins for the Judges in their first collegiate races. 

Cameron Braz ’18 claimed a victory in the 200-yard freestyle race for the men’s squad, finishing the race in 1:51.14, and Erin Gawronski ’18 won the 200-yard individual medley for the women’s squad with a time of 2:21.18.

“There were a lot of nerves for all the [first-years] beforehand, but overall it was fun,” said Zucker. “We were excited to be competing, and the most stressful part was that it was [most people’s] first collegiate meet. Even though we lost we had fun the whole time.”

The women’s squad also got second-place finishes from Yi Sul Richter ’18 in the 1,000-yard freestyle and Fallon Bushee ’16 in the 100-yard freestyle.

The men’s squad was tied with the visitors at seven wins apiece before the diving portion of the competition, and the Lyons swept the diving competition 26-0 to claim the victory, as Zucker was only able to complete four of the five necessary dives to score points.

Both squads return to the pool at the University of Rochester Invitational, held this Friday evening and Saturday morning.