The Eastern College Athletic Conference Men's and Women's Open Swimming and Diving Championships in Pittsburgh was where the men's and women's swimming and diving team looked to shine against over 20 strong schools from Divisions I, II and III. While the women finished 19th of 28 teams and the men placed 16th of 21 teams, Brandeis' success can be appreciated by the impressive individual and team performances. The swimmers were able to finish the championships with 12 lifetime best performances, three school records and 8 top- 10 performances.

"We were very pleased with this statistic," coach Jim Zotz said in an e-mail to the Justice. "But [we] also fully expected everyone to perform their best."

On the women's side, Angela Chui '12 and Hollis Viray '10 performed especially well. On Day 1, they earned 2 points for Brandeis in the 200-yard freestyle relay and another 4 points in the 400-yard medley relay later that same day. The team also finished strongly in the 200-yard medley relay.

Individually, they performed just as well. Chui earned the Judges 3 points in the 400-yard individual medley on Day 2 of the competition, finishing sixth of eight swimmers in the B heat final, clocking in at 4 minutes, 37.70 seconds, missing NCAA qualification standards by 1.00 second.

She also swam in the 200-yard backstroke, clocking in at 2:09.52, once again missing out at NCAA qualification by a mere 0.26 seconds. Chui also added 3 points in the 200-yard IM.

Viray had a number of NCAA qualifying near misses. In the 100-yard breaststroke, she clocked in at 1:07.93, missing NCAA standards by a short 0.11 seconds. In the 200-yard breaststroke, Viray swam even better, earning Brandeis 6 points for her third-place finish in the B heat finals. This time, she missed out on NCAA qualification by 0.19 seconds. In the 200-yard individual medley, she missed out on NCAA qualification by 2.00 seconds.

The men's squad had its share of near misses as well but also managed to qualify two of its swimmers for NCAA B Championships.

In his qualifying run, the 100-yard butterfly, Daniel Danon '13 clocked in at 51.17 seconds, setting a school record and adding a personal best time.

Danon was also a member of the 800-yard freestyle relay team that also consisted of James Liu '10, Jesse Hershman '10 and Aaron Bennett '11, which gaveBrandeis 12 points with a time of 7:00.88. That team missed out on NCAA qualification by 3.50 seconds.

Bennett was pleased with how both the men's and women's sqauds performed at the ECACs.

"We had a lot to look forward to," he said. "We took the meet head-on. We approached it as a final step in the road for the season. We gave it our best."

The same team, minus Hershman and with Marc Eder '12, earned an eighth-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay, finishing with a time of 3:31.77, missing out on qualification also by 3.50 seconds. This time is also a Brandeis school record in the event.

Eder was responsible for the other NCAA qualifier. His performance in the 200-yard breaststroke, in which he also timed in at a personal best and school record, earned him NCAA B qualification with a time of 2:07.59 seconds.

Other notable results for the men's squad included Bennett and Liu. In the 200-yard butterfly, Bennett missed out on earning Brandeis points by 0.16 seconds but also missed out on NCAA qualification by 0.50 seconds. His time of 1:55.21 was also a personal best and school record. He set another school record in the 500-yard freestyle, clocking in at 4:44.39.

Liu nearly earned NCAA qualification three times. In the 100-yard butterfly, his time of 51.60 was only 0.25 seconds off of NCAA B standard.

In the 200-yard freestyle, he missed out on NCAA qualification by 0.50 seconds and missed out by 0.76 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle. Regardless of the results, his performances remain personal bests.

The swimming and diving program is being disabandoned starting next year, making this the final dual-meet for the squads.

Despite this, Liu and Bennett knew that the team had to give it their all, possibly for one last time.

"We left it all out in the pool. ... We wanted to show how dedicated we are. ... [It was important to show] how hard we trained and how hard we swam against other schools with amazing facilities.

"It's tough knowing that this may be it," Bennett said. "But this had a lot of emotion. ... It was an emotional rush and we put or hearts into it."

Those who qualified for the NCAA Championships will next compete March 18. The location and time of the competition will be determined at a later date.