After a long day trying to secure housing for next year, Brandeis rookie swimmer Marc Eder '12 came back to his room at 1 a.m. last Tuesday hoping to get some rest before leaving for the NCAA Division III Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Minnesota in a few hours. When he came back to his room, he was happily surprised to find a goodie bag full of Diet Dr. Pepper and chocolate, courtesy of his teammates Ellen Abramowitz '11 and Dana Simms '11, waiting for him on his pillow. This and other similar gestures helped him feel the support of his team as he made the solo trip to NCAAs, the first Brandeis men's swimmer to do so since Matt Christian '05 in 2005.

"[Abramowitz and Simms] went to the effort to go find my room and leave [the goodie bag] on my pillow, and it was really sweet of them," Eder said. "The constant stream of communication from the team while I was [at NCAAs] was great. It made me feel like they were following, they were watching. It made me feel good."

The support helped Eder set career-best times in two of his three events, the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke.

Eder finished the 200-yard individual medley in 1 minute, 58.46 seconds, the third-best time in school history and 47th best at the meet out of 49 competitors. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Eder beat Christian's school record with a time of 57.41 seconds, which tied him for 26th out of 42 competitors. He also improved upon his previous career-best time, 58.79 seconds.

In the 200-yard breaststroke, in which he was ranked 20th in the nation coming in, he placed 27th out of 36 with a time of 2:05.74. Coach Jim Zotz thought Eder's nerves may have played a factor.

"I think he just got nervous. I think he had really high expectations for himself, and I think he just put a lot of pressure on himself to do well," Zotz said.

Eder believed that he was hurt by not being aggressive enough in the first 100 yards of the race.

"I took it out too slow," Eder said. "I just wasn't aggressive enough in the first [100 yards]. I didn't try hard enough in the first [100 yards]. If you take it out too slow, it's hard to come back faster."

Eder's performance was a positive end to a tumultuous season for the swimming team. The Linsey pool was closed in October after the two heaters failed, and since then the team has been practicing at nearby schools, including Regis College. The program will be suspended after next season. Zotz said he thought the team came together over the difficulties it faced throughout the season.

"I just think that any time a team has adversity and you have to overcome it, it forces people to be less self-centered and more team- focused, and that's clearly what happened," he said. "We turned what was a negative into a positive."

The men's and women's swimming and diving teams will only graduate a combined four swimmers next season. Besides Eder, the men's team will see the return of James Liu '10, a member of the record-setting 400- and 800-yard freestyle relay teams, and Aaron Bennett '11, who holds the school record for the 200-yard butterfly.

The women's team next year will bring back rookie Angela Chui '12, who barely missed qualifying for NCAAs this year. During the regular season, she helped set school records in 11 events, including five relays and all three individual backstroke events. Hollis Viray '10, a member of those five record-setting relay teams who also set the school record for the 200-yard breaststroke in March, will also come back.

"I think we can all expect [more] records to fall next season, some of them by larger margins than others," Eder said. "The fact is that all the upperclassmen next year will be much closer because of practicing off campus this season, and that is going to allow us to start the season in a more heated fashion than we were in the beginning of this year.