Last season, the men's and women's swimming and diving teams began sharing a pool with Bentley University when the Linsey pool closed on campus. Since then the teams have primarily practiced at Regis College, but in a return to Bentley last Tuesday, the Judges split a dual meet decision against their cross-town rivals as the men's team defeated the Falcons 131-99 but the women fell 136-96. The men's team won its fourth straight dual meet and are now 4-1, while the women fell to 2-3 with the loss. With the win, the men's team is ranked 48th in the College Swimming Coaches Association of America poll for Division III teams.

For a program that is on the verge of suspension and season's end, swimmer Aaron Bennett '11 described how significant such a team honor truly is.

"It's a testament to how hard we have been working and that we have really earned our spot there," Bennett said.

The men's team nearly swept Bentley, as Brandeis swimmers took first place in 10 of the 11 swimming events while coming in second place in the other event. Recording multiple wins at the meet were Aaron Bennett '11, James Liu '10 and Marc Eder '12. Bennett led the way with a triple-win performance. He recorded first-place finishes in both long distance events, the 1,000-yard freestyle, the 500-yard freestyle, and the 200-yard butterfly. In the 500-yard freestyle, he won by 16.23 seconds over a Bentley opponent.

Liu, who lost both his events last meet at Babson College Nov. 12 by mere milliseconds, returned to his winning ways, taking first place in both freestyle sprinting events, the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyles.

Eder clocked in first in the 200-yard individual medley and in the 200-yard breaststroke. Daniel Danon '13 added a win for the men in the 200-yard freestyle. The squad also placed first in the 400-yard medley relay with the team of Justin Wellins '10, Eder, Danon and Liu, and in the 400-yard freestyle relay with the foursome of Joshua Allgaier '12, Danon, Wellins and Jesse Hershman '13.

Bennett attributes his ability to remain focused and possess strong stamina to Coach Jim Zotz's practices.

"Dual meets are hard because you punch in two or three events and a lot of yardage in a single day," Bennett said. "[Zotz] pushes us hard, stressing focus and endurance."

On the women's side, the squad was only able to record four wins in swimming events and one win in diving events despite strong performances from Angela Chui '12 and Hollis Viray '10.

Chui took first in the 200-yard individual medley and in the 200-yard backstroke, both of which she won by nearly 10 seconds. Chui also placed second in the 1,000-yard freestyle, an event which she normally does not swim in but did because the team was without some of its swimmers due to injury or illness, according to Zotz.

Viray took first place in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke and was runner-up in the 500-yard freestyle.

Dana Simms '11 was also able to record a win in the 3-meter diving event, earning a score of 220.55 points.

Zotz was surprised by the results but was not disappointed with the team's performance.

"We had at least one or two swimmers sick or injured, so we don't have as much of a margin of error on the women's side," he said. "We were taking some chances. We still had some real good swims and races, but the other team was just a little stronger."

With the men trying to build on their momentum and the women looking to get back on track, both squads will head to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the MIT Invitational on Dec. 4 for its final meet of the semester.

Both teams said that they see the upcoming invitational as one that can display the work that each team has put into this season thus far.

Bennett said of the men, "[The team] has been training really hard, so we look at MIT as a gauge about how we are doing."

For the women, Viray said "We've just been working on being really aggressive with swimming and going out harder. We have a potential that we haven't reached yet.