Miles from home and with no teammates in sight, swimmer Matt Christian '05 found himself backed by the champs. Christian's brother Marc swims for NCAA champion Kenyon College, and as Matt set a Brandeis record swimming in his last collegiate race, raucous cheers of support rose up from Kenyon's swimmers."All the parents, the coaching staff, and the swimmers were cheering me on," Christian said. "It meant a lot to me to have my brother and a [powerhouse team] representing me. It really helped me."

Christian used that support to finish his Brandeis career with a bang, setting a school record in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:07.65. He fell less than four-tenths of a second short of 16th place and all-American honors. But he still said he finished his career fulfilling a dream: appearing at nationals.

"I had a great time," Christian said. "It was just an honor to be there. By the time I finished, I knew I was going to have to be dragged out of the pool because I left everything in there."

"It was great," coach James Zotz said. "Matt has worked extremely hard. [He's] a student of the sport and he's gotten better and better each year."

Christian was the only Brandeis swimmer to finish the championships after Chris Pai '07 and Leon Rosefigura '07 were suspended from the meet (see story, page 1).

The suspensions made it impossible for Brandeis to score any team points, but Christian managed to score a 24th-place finish in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:12.09.

Christian's 200-yard breaststroke swim was his 10th school record. He also finished 26th in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:55.74.

"I was just really honored to be able to represent Brandeis," Christian said. "No matter how I swam, I was going to get out of the pool happy and be confident with the fact that I had an awesome career."

"It's a pretty phenomenal accomplishment," captain Noah Rachlin '05 said. "I think it validates the work he's put in.

-Justice Editor Dan Hirschhorn contributed to this article.