The men's and women's swimming and diving teams competed at the UAA Championships in Chicago last weekend, and despite their low finishes, both teams enjoyed a host of excellent individual performances. The men finished fifth out of eight teams with 415 points and the women finished seventh out of eight teams for the second consecutive year with 219.5 points.The four-day competition, which began last Wednesday and ended on Saturday, was the only competition in which the Judges competed against the rest of the conference.

"In the UAA we're in the big pond with the big fish," Coach Jim Zotz said. "This meet was the most competitive and the biggest competition. We didn't finish as high as we wanted to but I thought that, across the board, our performances were outstanding."

On the men's side, Chris Pai '07 claimed his second and third UAA titles, winning the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.27 seconds and taking the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.12 seconds. Pai's time for the 50-yard freestyle re-set his own school record and set a new University of Chicago facility record.

Matt Christian '05 also broke his own school record in the 100-yard breaststroke, clocking in at 58.37 seconds. Christian also qualified for the NCAA championships in the 100-yard breaststroke, the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard backstroke.

"It's a big relief and a big accomplishment to do that, and I feel very proud to represent Brandeis in that way," Christian said. "I hope that it pushes other people to aspire for those times they needed to make it to nationals, to work harder and hopefully they're not just going to do it for themselves, but they'll do it for Brandeis too."

The women were not as successful in qualifying for the championship meet. Sharon Makowsky '06 had the best performance of the meet for the Judges. Makowsky qualified for the finals in the 200-yard butterfly, made the consolation finals in the 400-yard individual medley and also made the finals for the 500-yard freestyle, setting school records in the latter two events.

Charlotte Rea '08 also had a solid performance for the Judges in the diving competition. Rea finished fifth in the one-meter diving competition on the first day with a score of 338.30.

"Regardless of [the women's team] finishing seventh out of eight teams, as a team the success is in having individuals swimming their best performances," Zotz said. "That's really our goal and we got that from a lot of people."

The team will now head to nearby Bentley College for the New England Division II and III Championships on Friday. The men are defending their victory in that competition, while the women are aiming to improve on their third-place finish last year.

"As a team this is a meet that we all really work toward all season," Makowsky said. "In general, I think everyone did really well, put in a lot of effort. The men's and women's teams had a lot of personal bests and it was just a great meet where we could all rally behind each other and support each other.