The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams lost both meets at the University of Rochester Invitational this past weekend—scored as a dual meet with University Athletic Association rivals Rochester and New York University and a meet against Division I Canisius College. 

The Judges entered the competition after facing Wheaton College (Mass.) on Oct. 19, giving the squads just under a week to prepare for the meet at Rochester.

The men lost to Rochester by a score of 242-111, to NYU 294-62 and finally to Canisius 296-69, but saw a few bright spots with in the distance freestyle events. 

Captain Max Fabian ’15 secured fourth place in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 16 minutes, 47.11 seconds. 

Fabian was not far away from one of the top three spots, as the second through fourth-place finishers each finished within a second of each another. 

Fabian holds the school record in the 1650-yard freestyle, a race he finished in 16:10.36 at last year’s UAA Championships.

In only the second meet of his collegiate career, Zach Diamond ’18 finished the 1650-yard freestyle in fifth place. 

Diamond posted an excellent time of 17:04.01, a full 20 seconds faster than the sixth-place competitor’s time. 

Diamond and Fabian also finished in sixth and seventh in the 500-yard freestyle with times of 5:00.10 and 5:01.22, respectively. 

“I felt that my performance was pretty well for this time of year,” said Diamond. “I was trying to work on my pacing, especially for my longer races,” he explained. 

Brian Luk ’16 turned in another strong showing for the Judges as he finished in fourth place in the 50-yard freestyle race with a time of 22.27 seconds.  

The top relay of the weekend from the Judges came during the 800-yard freestyle relay, composed of Luk, Diamond, Fabian and Taku Harada ’18. The quartet took fifth place in the competition with a time of 7:25.69. 

According to Diamond, this Judges team definitely has a strong group mentality. 

“As a team, we always strive for improvement as a whole and for each member themselves,” said Diamond. “I could not find one race where someone was not cheering for another person on the team.” 

The women fared around the same as the men, losing to Rochester 311-59, to NYU 311-49 and to Canisius 289-56. 

For the second meet in a row, the star for the Judges was Joanna Murphy ’17. Murphy finished the 1650-yard freestyle race in second place in with a time of 18:08.24, the first time she has swam the race this year. 

The time had her about 10 seconds off of the first-place finisher. 

Theresa Gaffney ’16 finished the 1650-yard freestyle race in 20:41.13, picking up a 10th-place finish

Murphy also secured a time of 5:23.91 in the 500-yard freestyle, good for sixth place. 

The time was also about four seconds faster than she completed the race in last week’s meet. 

Along with Murphy, the women also had a solid outing from Erin Gawronski ’18. 

Gawronski, in only her second collegiate meet, finished the 400-yard individual  medley in in seventh place with a time of 4:59.80. The time placed her about a second ahead of Murphy. 

Fay Laborio ’16 took 15th place in the race with a time of 5:23.75.

Gaffney also placed 15th in the 200-yard freestyle, a race she completed in 2:16.13.

The slow start to the season was expected, as the Judges team includes 19 first-years, the majority of the squad. 

The swimmers seem optimistic for the rest of the season, as there is plenty of time to improve in the long season, according to Diamond. 

“The team is headed in a very ambitious direction,” he said. 

“We are always ready to attack the next practice, and are willing to try new challenges that will make ourselves as a team only better,” Diamond continued.  

“If we focus on just one thing that can improve our swimming as a whole, come February [the UAA Championships], there will hopefully be some amazing results.” 

The Judges next competition will be at Babson College on Nov. 9, where they will face off against hosts Babson and Worcester Polytechnic Institute  in a tri-meet, beginning at 3 p.m.