The men's and women's swimming and diving team teams traveled to Cambridge for a meet against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Colby College on Saturday after facing Wheaton college at home Wednesday in the team's first week of action following its midseason training trip to Puerto Rico.With high hopes coming out of the break, the teams hit two consecutive road bumps with a loss to Wheaton followed by losses to both Colby and MIT. With the losses, the men's record stands at 4-6, while the women are 3-7.

On Saturday, MIT defeated the men 186-71 and the women 226-71, while Colby drowned the Judges' with victories of 173-110 over the men and 207-90 over the women.

Hal Grossman '07 was the only event-winner for the Judges, winning the 1000-meter freestyle by just under four seconds with a time of 10:30.49. Todd Berman '07 turned in a second-place performance in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 57.46 seconds, missing the victory by six-tenths of a second.

Despite the defeat, Berman was impressed with the strong effort of the team.

"We left everything in the pool," he said.

The women failed to win a single event in Cambridge on Saturday, but still had some solid performances. Captain Sharon Makowsky '06 was the runner-up in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 2:17:94, while Charlotte Rea '08 finished second to MIT sophomore Doria Holbrook in both the one-meter and three-meter diving events.

Makowsky said she was content with the team's strong individual accomplishments.

"As individuals, people were much happier with their times," she said.

Coach James Zotz emphasized that the competition against strong teams like MIT and Colby will help prepare the Judges for the upcoming UAA competition.

"I'd much rather be in a meet where we compete and lose against greater competition," he said.

On Tuesday, the Judges suffered a difficult home loss to the Wheaton College Lyons at Linsey Pool. The Lyons downed the men 154-116 and the women 161.5-126.5.

Both teams were close to victory but ultimately succumbed to the Lyons in the end of the meet.

Grossman led the men's team with victories in the 200-meter and 500-meter freestyle events. Captain Matthew Lerman '07 added a victory in the 100-meter breaststroke with a personal-best time of 1:1.94.

"Everyone went out and did their best, but unfortunately, we did not win," Lerman said.

The women's team was also unable to pull off the victory, but Makowsky dazzled in the event, winning both the 500-meter and 1000-meter freestyle. She was also a part of the winning 400-meter freestyle relay team along with Rea, Leah Lipka '09 and Sarah Evans '06. The other event winner for the Judges was Lalin Anik '06, who took the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 2 minutes and 21.62 seconds.

"We had no margin for error," Zotz said.

Despite losing, Makowsky believed the team came out of the break with a new resolve.

"We were more aggressive in our races because we had the training to be strong," she said.

In the team's annual training trip to Puerto Rico, Zotz said the swimmers spent about six hours a day training, both in and out of the water. The team was able to practice in an outdoor Olympic-size pool, which is twice the length of collegiate pools, he said.

Zotz also said he was impressed with the dedication the players showed throughout the training.

"People were in better shape compared to past years, so that set the tone for a good trip because people were ready for the challenge," he said.

The Judges now enter the home stretch of the season, with a meet at Clark University next Wednesday at 6 p.m. and at home against Worcester Polytech Institute next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Following these meets are the UAA Championships, which begin on Feb. 8 at Emory University in Atlanta.