The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams split a weekend meeting with Wesleyan University on Saturday afternoon as the men earned a 155-35 over the Cardinals while the women fell by a 220-70 score.

Brian Luk ’16 paced the men’s squad with two individual wins and a second place finish, taking first place in both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle races. Luk swam the 50-yard freestyle race in 22.50 seconds, out-touching the second-place finisher by .43 seconds. He finished the 100-yard freestyle in 49.12 seconds, nearly a second and a half faster than Cameron Braz ’17. 

The squad swept the top three spots in the 100-yard freestyle, as Braz touched the wall at 50.57 and Daniel Smyda ’18 grabbed third with a time of 51.75.

“At this point in the season, my performances thus far give me a lot of optimism to meet my goals,” said Braz. “I guess you could say I’m happy with them, but I use ‘happy’ lightly in the respect that I can’t just settle for happy. I always strive to perform in an event where the outcome just shocks me at the end. I was shocked by my 200 as well, because I nearly matched my time [last week]. The best way I approached this meet was just to take it one event at a time without thinking of anything else.”

David Lazarovich ’16 won the 200-yard backstroke in 2:22.78, more than three seconds faster than the second-place competitor from Wesleyan. Lazarovich was also one of three Judges to finish in the top five in the 200-yard individual medley, a race won by Zach Diamond ’18.

Diamond got the win in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:02.70 and was followed closely by Edan Zitelny ’17, who grabbed second place in 2:05.82. Lazarovich took fifth place in 2:10.50.

“Our teams’ thinking was to constantly keep up the pace,” said Braz. “I think everyone on the team felt a bit groggy at the start of the meet, but some events, like … the 100 [yard freestyle] where we had our team competing with each other, got everyone up off their feet.”

Max Fabian ’15 continued his dominance over the distance races, winning both the 500-yard freestyle and 1,000-yard freestyle races. He took the former in 4:56.39 and the latter in 10:06.67, more than six seconds faster than the second-place finisher. Fabian also took third place in the 200-yard butterfly, stopping the timer at 2:02.74. 

The squad needed a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay to walk away with the victory on the afternoon, and the quartet of Braz, Smyda, Luk and Abu Batjargal ’18 delivered with strong races in the final two legs.

Although the four outswam opponents from Wesleyan by nearly one and a half seconds, they entered the final two legs in second place. Batjargal closed a gap of nearly .4 seconds in the third leg while Luk swam the anchor in 21.61 seconds, a full two seconds faster than the Wesleyan side.

“Without a doubt, though, the most exciting part of the meet was the ending relay,” said Braz. “It took all four of us to win it, and ultimately with the score of the meet on the line, we handled the pressure very well.” 

Although the win in the relay secured the day’s victory for the Judges, the women’s squad was not able to match their success.

Joanna Murphy ’17 paced the women’s squad with three second-place finishes as the squad totaled seven second-place finishes during the meet.

Murphy finished the 200-yard freestyle race in 2:01.40, the 500-yard freestyle race in 5:28.32 and the 200-yard butterfly in 2:24.17. Murphy was fewer than three seconds behind the top finisher in the 200-yard freestyle and the butterfly.

Sherry Tu ’18 took second place in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:05.58, exactly one second off the pace of the winner, and fourth in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.89. 

Yi-Sul Richter  ’18 was the runner -up in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing the race in 11:39.07. Theresa Gaffney ’16 placed fourth in the race with a time of 12:15.79.

Erin Gawronski ’18 completed a strong weekend with a pair of second-place races and a third-place finish in the afternoon. Gawronski took second in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:24.01 and was the runner-up in the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:22.36 finish. She added a third-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly, stopping the timer at 1:06.80.

Both squads return to action on Friday in a meet at Bentley University, beginning at 5 p.m.