The Brandeis University Swimming and Diving Team bounced back from their disappointing losses to MIT and Tufts last week by convincingly defeating Clark University on Wednesday and Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Saturday. The men's team beat Clark 134-103 and WPI 127-102. The women's team won by a score of 132-59 over Clark and 120-103 over WPI. These victories closed out a very impressive regular season for the Brandeis swimmers, as the men's team finished with a record of 8-3. The women were not far behind, with a regular season record of 7-4.
Wednesday night, the Judges traveled to Worcester to swim at Clark University, and they never gave the Cougars a chance to get within striking distance. Brandeis dominated all aspects of the meet, coming away with an easy victory. Alison Smizer '07 was impressive for the women's team, winning three events, the 100 yard individual medley, 500 yard freestyle, and 100-yard breaststroke. Elana Kaufman '06, who is from Worcester, did not disappoint the hometown crowd, by winning the 1000-yard freestyle. Other female Judges winners were Sarah Evans '06 (100 free), Sharon Makowsky '06 (200 free), and Jordan RoseFigura '04 (100 backstroke). The men had seven different winners at Clark, with Nick Pai '05 winning two races, the 500-yard freestyle and 100 yard butterfly. The winners for the men's team also included Dan Levin '04 (50 free), Todd Berman '07 (100 free), Nick Dufresne '04 (200 free), Josiah Spurr '07 (1000 free), Ross Gercenstein '06 (100 backstroke), and Noah Rachlin '05 (100 individual medley).
Saturday, the WPI Engineers visited the Linsey Pool at Brandeis for the Judges' last home meet of the season. Before the meet, Coach Jim Zotz spoke, and all thirteen senior team members were honored with flowers and balloons. The male seniors are Jeremiah Cohen (captain), Dufresne (captain), Dan Levin (captain), Josh Storch, Adam Wald, and James Yeaton. The seniors on the women's team are Shira Friedman, Lisa Goodman (manager), Maya Marx (captain), Jordan RoseFigura (captain), Paula Schreiber (captain), Lili Weinstein, and Robin Zebrowitz.
The meet against WPI was another easy victory for the Judges, as both the men's and women's teams controlled the meet, even as a number of swimmers were trying out events they usually do not swim. The men's team won 10 events, with James Yeaton '04 winning two events, both the required and optional one-meter diving.
Hal Grossman '07 beat his own Brandeis record in the 1000-yard freestyle, swimming the race in 10:16.34. The other first place finishers for the men were Leon RoseFigura '07 (200 free), Rachlin (200 butterfly), Chris Pai '07 (100 free), Matt Christian '05 (200 backstroke), Levin (500 free), Dufresne (200 breaststroke), and the relay team of Levin, Christian, Lev Davidson '06, and Gercenstein (400 free relay). The women's team also won 10 events for the meet. Like Yeaton for the men, Shira Friedman '04 won both the required and optional diving events. RoseFigura also won two races, the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly.
Winners for the women's team included Lalin Anik '06 (50 free), Robin Zebrowitz '04 (200 individual medley), Makowsky (100-yard freestyle), Kaufman (500 free), Maya Marx '04 (200 breaststroke), and the all-senior relay team of RoseFigura, Lili Weinstein '04, Zebrowitz, and Marx (400 free relay).
These impressive victories helped to build confidence as the Judges head into the UAA Championship meet, which begins on February 11th, at Emory University in Atlanta. The team hopes to improve on their finishes from last year, where both men and women placed sixth out of eight teams.
The UAA is an extremely competitive conference for swimming and diving, but this year, the Judges hope to be among the best. At the championship, look for a number of Brandeis records to be broken, as every year, team members swim their fastest during the UAAs.