Despite their intense morning and afternoon twice-a-day practice sessions, the beautifully tanned Brandeis men's and women's swimming and diving teams swam into a couple of roadblocks in the Tufts University Jumbos and MIT Engineers.
This meet, held on Sunday at the Zesiger Center at MIT, was the Judges' first meet in the United States since the end of November. While on their training trip in Puerto Rico, the teams competed in a large, multi-team meet against competition from Division III and even Division I universities. Unfortunately, the outcome was not similar to their winning ways which were consistent throughout the first semester.
MIT and Tufts are perennially the top Division III swim teams in New England, and both teams' top finishers completed their races with times that would have smashed records held by Brandeis swimmers. Tri-captain Maya Marx '04, however, was brilliant for the Judges, providing their only two victories of the meet, in both the 100 (1:08.44) and 200 yard breaststroke (2:30.29). Despite their losses, the Judges plan on rebounding against Clark and WPI later this week.
The unfavorable results of Sunday's meet may come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with competitive swimming. The swim team sees regular season meets, like the one on Sunday, as virtual warm-ups for the UAA Championship meet held at Emory University in February, the culmination of a long and tough season.
There is a philosophy in swimming that dictates that swimmers must, according to tri-captain Nick Dufresne '04 "work their bodies hard enough to the point that they literally feel 'broken,' in order to allow for two weeks of fixing and rebuilding."
This two-week period, known as taper, lets the swimmers' muscles recuperate from the rigorous workouts held over training trip and the first two weeks of being back at Brandeis. In the time between training trip and the beginning of taper, however, the team is literally broken down, and possibly even slower than before the trip. So, a couple of slower times should not be discouraging, and are in fact signs of a strong recovery and record-setting times at the UAA Championships.
There were a number of bright spots for the Judges in their meet on Sunday, and these times, under "broken" conditions, will certainly be improved upon in the coming weeks. A pair of Brandeis first-years placed second in their races. Hal Grossman '07 swam the 1000-yard freestyle in 10:20.69, and Chris Pai '07 swam the 50-yard freestyle in 22.12. Pai also finished third in the 100 yard butterfly (54.43). Lalin Anik '06 took second place for the women's team in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:03.92. The Judges' individual third place finishers were Sharon Makowsky '06 (1650-yard freestyle; 19:04.08), Jordan Rose-Figura '04 (200-yard butterfly; 2:21.01), and Noah Rachlin '05 (200-yard butterfly; 2:03.64).
Two women's relay teams placed third in their respective events (Anik, Marx, Sarah Evans '06 and Alison Smizer '07 in the 200-yard Medley Relay, and Marx, Smizer, Rose-Figura, and Elana Kaufman '06 in the 800-yard freestyle relay).
The swim team races at Clark University on Wednesday night, for the last away meet of the season. Then the Judges are home on Saturday for their final regular season meet, against Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The meet is at 3 pm at the Linsey Pool. This is a special meet, as the seniors receive recognition for the four years of hard work they committed to the swimming and diving team.