Despite several solid individual performances in Saturday's home meet against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the swimming teams still fell short against the deeper Engineers. The men's team dropped a 156-118 meet against the Engineers, while the women's team was defeated 164-128.

Including a 167-118 loss at Wheaton College Thursday, the women's team has lost five dual meets in a row and stands at 1-7 on the season. The men's team defeated Wheaton 115-77 Thursday and are now 4-4.

Earlier this season at the Dec. 3 Wesleyan Invitational, an individual meet, the men's and women's team both topped MIT en route to winning their respective meets. The tables were clearly turned, however, in Saturday's team competition.

"Sometimes you go into a dual meet and you are overpowered," captain Todd Berman '07 said.

"But the great thing about swimming is that [a performance like that] doesn't stop great individual performances."

As he has all season long, rookie James Liu '10 led the way for the men, placing first in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2 minutes, 4.92 seconds.

"I just give it all I got," said Liu. "I don't usually hold things back and I know my teammates are counting on me."

"The 200-fly is a difficult event, [but] James is like a rock in it. You can always count on him," Berman said.

Justin Wellins '10, another dependable rookie, had a comeback

win in the 100-yard freestyle event with a time of 49.42 seconds, just .02 seconds in front of MIT freshman Jeff Zhou. In another close race, Wellins, who finished the day with 13 points, took second place in the 50-yard freestyle by a mere .64 seconds.

Bobby Morse '09 also won the 500-yard freestyle event in 5:06.26 minutes.

Yet at the end of the day, MIT's strong team effort outlasted the Judges' significant individual achievements.

"MIT is currently stronger than us, with much more depth," coach James Zotz said.

In their own attempt to outshine MIT for the second time this season, the women failed to hold off the 5-1 Engineers.

The squad still boasted a number of individual achievements, including the first collegiate win for Dasha Hentoff '10 in the 200-yard breaststroke. Hentoff finished the race in 2:42.37 minutes.

"It felt awesome to win an individual event for the first time," Hentoff said.

Fellow rookie Rachel Sawicki '10 took first in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:18.19 minutes, and also placed third in the 100-yard freestyle event.

In diving, Charlotte Rea '08 lost only her second one-meter dive of the year, but still qualified for the Division III championships. In the three-meter dive, Rea took first with a score of 256.20, which also qualified her for the NCAA championships.

"I think a lot of people tend to overlook diving because it only happens once or twice during a meet," Keara Dekay '08 said. "Perhaps to people outside of the team [Charlotte] has flown under the radar, but we really recognize her achievements."

Diver Alix Lifka-Riselman '09 scored a total of four points Saturday, her personal best.

"Both of our women divers had great individual performances," Zotz said.

Thursday's dual meet against Wheaton came after the Judges returned from an intense practice schedule that began Dec. 28 and included just two days off over 18 days. By January 16, the Judges will have completed a grueling 33 practices in 20 days.

"We have been training very hard to achieve our season-end goals," Zotz said.

"To a certain extent that has a negative impact on our performances in current meets. Are we prepared? Yes! Are we very tired? Absolutely!"

The Judges' dual meets come to a close this week against Clark University at home at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, followed by a 4 p.m. Saturday meet at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.