The women’s swimming team won their first meet since the program was restarted two years ago as they traveled to Worcester Polytechnic Institute for a tri-meet on Sunday. 

The men’s team also competed, splitting the day’s meets with a win against Babson College and a loss against WPI.  

The men went 1-1 for the day, beating Babson 153-136 and losing to WPI 120.5-162.5. 

The women dropped the two meets against Smith College and WPI with scores of 93-200 and 78-173, respectively, but managed to pull out a win against Babson 157-102 for the team’s first victory since its reinstatement in 2012.

The win for the men’s team was the earliest in the season since the program’s reinstatement under coach Mike Kotch two years ago. 

The squad earned its first win of the year in the ninth meet of the season in each of the last two years but swam to a victory in their third meet this year.

The men’s squad had a number of first-place finishes on the day that helped them secure the win against Babson. 

In the men’s 1000-yard freestyle, Max Fabian ’15 finished in first place with a time of 10 minutes, 7.72 seconds, six seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. 

Fabian followed that up with a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly and a third-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle. 

Brian Luk ’16 also had a strong showing for the team, earning three first-place finishes. 

Luk finished first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.01 seconds, which was .18 seconds ahead of second place. 

He also finished first in the 100-yard freestyle, in which he led at the turn and had to hold off WPI freshman David Smallwood as the latter gained ground in the final stretch of the race. 

Luk also earned a win in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing just under a full second ahead of Babson sophomore Andrew Wen.

Zach Diamond ’18 was one of many Judges to turn in a strong meet on a team that has faced a tough time recruiting new talent after its reinstatement in 2012. 

Diamond finished third in the 200-yard butterfly, fourth in the 500-yard freestyle and second in the 200-yard individual medley.

With the season just getting started, Diamond feels like he still has room for improvement. 

“Even though my times were faster than the first couple of meets, I still feel that my events need some work with technique and some minor pacing habits with my races,” he said.

The women’s team came away with two losses on the day but did manage to earn their first team win since 2009, the team’s last season before returning in the fall of 2012. The team was led by promising results from its youngest members.

The team’s only first-place finish came from Erin Gawronski ’18, who came on strong after the second turn of the 200-yard individual medley and made up just under three seconds on second-place finisher and Smith College senior Alyssa Pascuzzo to win the race.

She also contributed a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke and a seventh-place finish in the 100-yard breastsroke to help pace the Judges.

Yi Sul Richter ’18 supplied the team with two second-place finishes: one in the 1000-yard freestyle and another in the 500-yard freestyle event. 

Amy Sheinhait ’18 got the team a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 2:09.20 and beating out Smith College senior Paige Christie after the final turn of the race for third place by just .27 seconds.

Sherry Tu ’18 added a pair of strong finishes in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke, taking second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.95 and fifth in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:07.30.

The win was an important building block for the team according to Diamond, even though the ultimate goal is to win every meet they participate in. 

Diamond said that both teams took pride in the victory, as the women’s team worked hard to earn their first win of the year.

“The women's team was extremely proud and happy with the win; it was really well-deserved, and everyone played a part into getting the win,” he said.

 “Each day, the women's team grows stronger as a whole, and both men's and women's teams are eagerly awaiting support for the next win.” 

Both the men’s and women’s teams will try to build on their successes with a meet at Wesleyan University on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m.