The men's swimming and diving team had defeated Keene State College every year since 2002 by an average of a 30 points per win, but that streak of dominance came to an end Saturday. The Owls finally snapped their losing streak against the Judges, toppling the men's team 170-128, and also defeated the women's team 162-138. With the loss, both Brandeis teams dropped to 0-2 this season.

On the men's side, Keene State sent out a new lineup that included 14 rookies out of 21 total swimmers.

Brandeis coach James Zotz said it was difficult to create a lineup against opposing swimmers of which he had no prior knowledge.

"If I had results on them, [then] I could've gotten a better sense of what their potential was and create our lineup according to that," Zotz said.

Both Brandeis teams lost many close races, but it was the men's team that suffered the most. Brandeis missed a first-place finish in 12 of the 16 events but lost seven of those 12 by less than one second.

Since the difference between a first-place finish and second-place finish is five points for individual events and seven points for relays, the Judges paid for their small margins of defeat.

James Liu '10 attributed the difference to what he described as minor tactical aspects.

"I think we have to work on our starts and turns a little bit more; they weren't as good as they could've been," he said.

"We just need to spend more time on those things in practice."

After winning all three of his individual races in an Oct. 17 loss to Boston College, Liu was again impressive in his individual performances, but he fell victim to close finishes like many of his teammates.

He finished first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of one minute, 50.3 seconds, but was second in the 50-yard freestyle, just 16 hundredths of a second behind Keene State sophomore Cody Larrimore's time of 22.16 seconds.

Liu's second-place finish meant he came out with only four points instead of the nine he would have received for finishing first.

Larrimore also got the best of Liu in the 100-yard freestyle, edging him by only four-tenths of a second to again take nine first-place points over Liu's four.

In diving, the Owls' men's team had three divers competing, while the Judges don't even have a regular diver on their team. Swimmer Alex Cemaj '10 stepped in to prevent Keene State from getting too many free points and still managed to avoid finishing last in either diving event, but despite staying late to practice Friday, it was a difficult adjustment for him.

"I was only going to do one event at first, but we figured if we were down by the second event I would compete again, but I hadn't practiced those dives [for a second event]," Cemaj said.

Zotz said the team has failed in its attempts to find divers so far.

"We do have a diving team, just not any divers," he said.

"We've begged and borrowed and are looking for anything," Zotz added.

"We just haven't been able to attract or find any males who are willing to dive."

On the women's side, Charlotte Rea '08 led the Judges with first-place finishes in both of the one-meter diving events.

In addition to Rea, Zotz said swimmer Hollis Viray '10 had a career day, as she finished with three first-place finishes and some of her personal best times. She won the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke events with times of 2:02.71 and 2:34.41, respectively, and also won the 200-yard individual medley event, pulling ahead early in the butterfly and backstroke portion of the race.

"We had about four or five different people with lifetime best performances, and at this time in the year that's just extraordinary," Zotz said.

"Normally that's something that takes place at the end of the season."

While the women's team did show signs of individual success, it still struggled as a whole. Brandeis only had first-place finishes in seven of the 16 events, and only had five events in which they earned more combined points than Keene State.

The two teams resume action with three consecutive home matches in the next week and a half. The stretch starts Nov. 3 with the Alumni Meet at 3 p.m., and continues Nov. 8 against Babson College at 6:30 p.m before closing with Bentley?College?Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m.