The women's swimming and diving team's relay foursome of Angela Chui '12, Hollis Viray '10, Siobhan Lyons '10 and Julia Derk '12 held four out of five school records in relay events coming into the final day at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships at Harvard University last Sunday. The only mark left to break was the 400-yard freestyle relay school record. It was only a matter of time until that record fell, too.While the relay squad took only 11th place of 15 teams in the preliminary round, it conquered the school record in the 400-yard freestyle event with a time of 3 minutes, 41.28 seconds, beating the old mark of 3:42.78 which was set Feb. 23, 2003.

"We knew coming in that we had to drop a certain amount of time [to break the record] and that was a goal we set for ourselves," Viray said. "It's cool to know we're the fastest team to ever race at Brandeis."

The women's team took 13th place out of 26 teams with 90 points, the best among Division III schools at the meet. The men's team was 16th of 23 teams with 66 points. The U.S. Naval Academy won the Championships on the men's side with 703.5 points while host school Harvard University was the best women's team with 494 points.

The ECAC Championships conclude a tumultuous season for the Judges after the closing of the Linsey pool in October. The Judges practiced at Regis College and Bentley College this year. The program will remain for one more season but will be suspended thereafter.

"I think the reason we were so good this year is because we pushed ourselves so hard," Marc Eder '12 said. "Without a pool we had a tough challenge and came out of it really well. I don't think any other teams in the [University Athletic Association] had to make the sacrifices we've had to for this season."

Chui, Viray and Eder may continue their seasons because they reached NCAA B cut qualifying times, making them eligible to be selected to the NCAA Division III Championships in Minneapolis starting March 18. The NCAA will select the top 18 swimmers for each event.

Both teams combined to break 13 school records during the three-day meet, with the women's team breaking seven.

Going into the ECACs, Chui, Viray, Lyons and Derk had already held the school records in the 800-yard freestyle relay at 8:07.35, the 400-yard medley relay at 4:07.46 and the 200-medley relay at 1:52.25.

In their first race last Friday, the squad broke the school record in the 200-yard freestyle relay. They later broke their own school mark in the 400-yard medley relay, twice-once in the preliminaries by five seconds in 4:05.26, and again in the finals by three additional seconds in 4:02.25.

"They're four very strong swimmers and it's exciting how none of them are graduating," captain Rachel Nadas '09 said. "[The records] were very strong to start with so it's exciting to be breaking [already] fast times."

Chui also lowered three of her previously-owned individual records. She broke her mark in the 200-yard individual medley twice last Friday, first in the preliminary rounds and then again by bettering her score in the finals at 2:09.38 to win the 'B' finals after missing the 'A' cut in the preliminary rounds. She later set new marks in the 400-yard individual medley last Saturday and the 200-yard backstroke last Sunday.

Viray broke a team record last Sunday in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:26.76 in the preliminaries. Viray qualified for the NCAA 'B' cut in this race and the 100-yard breaststroke the day before.

"I knew this was something I could achieve so I focused on doing my best and thought it would take care of itself and it did," Viray said.

Eder had the meet's best finish for the men's team, as he captured the school record in the 200-yard breaststroke in the preliminaries with a time of 2:04.79. The time was also in the top 20 in the nation among Division III 'B' cut qualifiers, putting Eder eligible for a bid to the NCAA Championships.

"Last time I swam this race I cramped up so I tried to pace myself better [this time]," he said. "I knew the kid next to me was seeded at 2:03.00 so I was trying to stay with him because my goal was 2:06.50 and so when I looked up I had my time, [.] we were shattering records left and right."

Bobby Morse '09 and Aaron Bennett '11 each set three school records to round out the six total Brandeis marks that were broken on the day. Morse followed Bennett's record-breaking performance in the 500-yard freestyle event with one of his own and later broke a record in the 1,650-yard freestyle event.

Bennett broke the mark in the 200-yard butterfly event and teamed with Morse, James Liu '10 and Michael Rubin '09 to break the school's mark in the 800-yard freestyle relay.