Although the women's swimming and diving team did not defeat Wheaton Colllege last Thursday, diver Charlotte Rea '08 reached a key benchmark in her bid to qualify for the NCAA championships.Rea posted qualifying scores in both required and voluntary dives for the third time this season, but the women's team lost 164-134, falling to 1-5 on the season. Meanwhile, the men's team experienced more success, as they won 136-108 to improve their record to 3-3 on the season.

Rea is hoping to compete in the season-ending NCAA Championships for the first time in her career. She qualified last season, but a stomach virus held her out of the competition. This time, her impressive performance in the midst of the team's third straight loss inches her closer to receiving that bid.

"She's been diving very well this year," coach James Zotz said. "She's been doing dives with higher degrees of difficulty and that has made a big difference in her scores. We're really excited for her; it's difficult to do what she's doing."

Rea won both one-meter diving events with a combined score of 423.30, evoking the loudest cheers of the day from the home crowd.

Despite losing, swimmers Hollis Viray'10 and Rachel Sawicki '10 each had multiple victories in different events. Viray won the 200-yard freestyle in 2 minutes, 1.77 seconds, the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:31.01 and the 200-yard individual medley in 2:17.00. Sawicki's two victories came in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events with times of 1:01.87 and 2:12.97, respectively.

The Judges' other wins came from Siobhan Lyons '10 in the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 400-yard relay team of Sawicki, Viray, Lyons and Danielle Wolfson '11, who won with a time of 4:24.56.

On the men's side, James Liu '10 was again the star for the Judges, winning three individual events for the second time this season. He won the 100- and 200-yard butterfly and the 200-yard freestyle events in a season-opening 140-109 loss to Boston College Oct. 17.

This time, Liu won the 100-yard backstroke in 57.78 seconds, the 100-yard butterfly in 54.37 seconds and the 200-yard individual medley in 2:06.59.

"Regardless of how tired [Liu] is, regardless of the event, he's got a lot of pride and desire to win so when he gets off of the block he's just a pleasure to watch," Zotz said.

The recent rise of Aaron Bennett '11 has complemented Liu's continuous success. Bennett recorded the first multi-win meet of his young career, winning the 200-yard butterfly and 500-yard freestyle with times of 2:01.93 and 5:06.97, respectively.

"It was exciting," Bennett said. "I knew I had an advantage being in the faster lane and knew the competition was a little less fierce being that they were from a weaker school."

Bennett has improved his finishes as the season has progressed to this point, having recorded five of his seven second-place finishes and all four of his first-place finishes in the last four team meets.

Zotz spoke highly of Bennett, despite admitting his recent success was unexpected.

"He's been a real special surprise as a coach," Zotz said. "[Bennett's] built more like a small linebacker than he is like a swimmer. When he got in the water the first time I said he had a great feel for the water. He's a real hard worker in practice and responds real well to constructive criticism."

The Judges also got individual wins from Bobby Morse '09 in the 1,000-yard freestyle, Jesse Hershman '10 in the 200-yard freestyle, Nick Rice '08 in the 100-yard freestyle and Eli Tukachinsky '11 in the 200-yard backstroke.

The two teams continue their seasons at Clark University Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m.