On the surface, the swimming and diving teams' meet against Bentley College last Tuesday was just another early-season match, but James Liu '10 admitted the Judges approached the annual rivalry more seriously. "They're our crosstown rivals," he said. "We just focused more as a team in general, so I guess we were just mentally prepared."

Liu and the rest of the men's team were able to taste victory, as they took nine of 13 events to win 127-99. The women's team, however, did not taste the same success, winning just one individual event in a 133-101 defeat. The men's team moved to 2-2 on the season, while the women's team dropped to 1-3.

Still, assistant coach Scott VanKuilenburg said the fact that the Judges were playing their rival spurred them to strong individual performances.

"[Our swimmers] won't come out and say that one dual meet is more important than the other, but when push comes to shove, you know who [our swimmers] are gunning for," he said. "Nobody likes to lose to the [team] right next to you."

On the men's side, four different rookies won events to lead the charge. Aaron Bennett '11 led the way in the 200-yard butterfly event with a time of 2 minutes, 4 seconds, which was over seven seconds faster than the event's second-place finisher, Joshua Klitenick '11.

Bennett added a second-place finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle event behind fellow rookie Zach Rubenstein '11, who finished with a time of 10:34.29.

Klitenick and Matt Straubel '11 were the other Judges' rookies to win events. Klitenick took the 200-yard individual medley event in 2:04.43, while Straubel held off teammate Bobby Morse '08 to win the 500-yard freestyle in 5:03.02.

"[The rookies] are doing a really great job," Liu said. "We have a young team, so they have a lot of support, and everyone encourages them. They're really comfortable with the team, [which is why] they're swimming really well."

In addition to the rookies, Liu and Nick Rice '08 each won two events. Liu took the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races, while Rice notched victories in the 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke.

On the women's side, Rachel Sawicki '10 was the only Judges' player to win an event, as she took the 200-yard butterfly in 2:13:34. VanKuilenburg attributed Sawicki's success to an emphasis on taking longer strokes as she swims.

"We're working on having her take fewer strokes and make those strokes a little bit longer," VanKuilenburg said. "Even in the heat of the race, she was able to keep her head together, keep her strokes down and keep them nice and long."

The Judges suffered without diver Charlotte Rea '08, an NCAA qualifier last season.

Rea remains sidelined with an ear injury suffered in the Judges' 114-58 win over Babson College Nov. 8, but players said she should be back for the team's next match Nov. 30.

Without Rea, none of the Judges' three divers-Alix Lifka-Reselman '09, Dana Simms '11 and Ellen Abramowitz '11-picked up a win in either diving event.

"Obviously, when you have an ace diver [not competing], and you lose those points, it puts pressure on others to step up," VanKuilenburg said. "You'd like to think someone is going to step up, but there's no way of knowing who's going to step up."

Among the Judges' other competitors, Hollis Viray '10 came closest to winning an event.

Her time of 11:01.37 in the 1000-yard freestyle was the second-fastest time in that event in school history, but a late push by Bentley senior Arden Brust relegated Viray to a second-place finish in the event.

"My strategy the whole race was to stay in front of [Brust], so that way, I could control the race," Viray said. "It just turned out that at the end, because she is more experienced than me, she could pace herself a little bit better."

The two teams next race at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Invitational Nov. 30.