The Brandeis swimming and diving teams struggled in the first rounds of the ECAC Championships last weekend, but pulled it together and delivered a spectacular performance to end the meet. With a combined score of 664, the Judges came out behind winner NYU, whose 1891 combined score easily gave the Violets first place.

"We knew we were capable of coming in top five," Coach James Zotz said. "We were really aiming for the top three."

This prediction was not far off, as the men's team finished in third with 405 points and the women in fifth with 259.

"Having this meet allowed us to asses the things we do well both collectively and individually, and identify things we can change, and then focus on those things in practice," Zotz said.

It was the astonishing ending performances that netted the teams the points they needed to finish so highly. In the last two sessions of the meet, Matt Christian '05 led the team to an impressive comeback, adding a first and third-place finish to his two previous second-place rankings in the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard breaststroke. His first place finish was in the 100-yard breaststroke, barely beating out the NYU swimmer, while breaking the Brandeis record set by Chris Macek '02.

Chris Pai '07 also added to the momentum, finishing first in the 50-yard freestyle on Sunday. He also added a second-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly and captured fourth in the 100-yard backstroke.

The women's team did not give up either, scoring significant points in the last events of the meet. Charlotte Rea '08 took ninth in the 50-yard freestyle. Rea added these points to the ones she earned earlier with two second-place finishes in the diving portion.

Lalin Anik '06 rounded out Brandeis' last-session scoring drive by taking 12th place in the 100-yard butterfly, 14th in the 100-yard backstroke and 15th in the 50-yard freestyle.

"We really wanted it more during the second session," Alison Smizer '07 said. "People really woke up and became more aggressive."

Zotz was not surprised by the increase in performance later in the meet.

"It took until Saturday for everyone to click and fall into place," he said. "We were missing a couple of people due to injury and class-conflicts. We were a little fragmented."

Zotz went on to add that because of the long, disorienting bus ride, the Thanksgiving break and a different style of gutters in the pool at the meet, the team was not ready to come out performing at its peak.

"During the first half we had some great swims, some great dives, and people got used to some great competition which is half the battle," Zotz said. "It's one thing being able to do it in a little pond, but you have to be able to do it in a big pond."

The Judges adapted very quickly to the adverse conditions, though, warming up and going on to claim more than eleven high-placed ranks toward the end of the meet.

"I was glad we did turn the corner," Zotz said. "By Saturday we were competing much better."

The season is not over and the Judges still have plenty to improve upon. Throughout winter vacation, the team will be training two times a day at Brandeis, until it leaves for the Dominican Republic and warmer temperatures.

There they will endure the tropical weather for ten days, as they work through two-a-day practices, until they return to face Wheaton College Jan. 12.

"We have a lot of freshman on the team, so we need to adjust to meet mentality and championship mentality," Zotz said.

The Judges visit Tufts University Sunday in their last meet before winter vacation.

"We're going to work on drills and after Christmas we'll be training very hard and very long," Zotz said.