The Brandeis swimming and diving teams, in action for the last time in 2012, had their closest dual meet of the season. Using a variety of swimmers in unique events, the men's team finished just 10 points behind Clark University, falling 138-128. The women's team fell to the Cougars 172-118.

"I think it went really well," Ruth Zeilicovich '14 said. "We had [a] really good chance of winning. Individually, people swam well."

Brandeis actually won 11 of the 15 events on the men's side, but a lack of depth still led to a team win for Clark. Nine of Clark's points were uncontested. Brandeis doesn't have a diver on the men's side, giving Clark sophomore Ben Ewald the easy victory.

 "We're [a] small team," Padraig Murphy '14 said. "So to lose by 10 points wasn't a bad result. Especially since they had the only diver. It shows that we have a lot of strong swimmers."
Murphy and Max Fabian '15 led the way for the men's team, as each of them picked up victories in all three of their individual races. Murphy swept the backstroke events, finishing the 100 in 58.00 seconds and the 200 in 2:07.76. Murphy also swam the 500-yard freestyle, winning in 5:16.15.

Fabian's three wins came in different events than he typically swims. Normally a distance swimmer and having set the school's 1,000-yard freestyle record just the week before, he found himself instead competing in the 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard breaststroke and 400-yard individual medley. And yet, he still won all three.

"He's such a strong swimmer," Zeilicovich said. "He didn't swim any of the freestyle events that he usually swims. He swam other events and he still did amazing."

Stepping up to replace Fabian in the 1,000 was Niko Karkantis '13, who typically swims sprint events for Brandeis. A surprise entry, Karkantis won the event by nearly 30 seconds, finishing with a time of 11:33.41.

Brian Luk '16 was a double winner for the Judges, sweeping the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly in 49.20 and 55.12, respectively.

Ariel Baron '16 won the 200-yard freestyle, and the men's team's scoring ended with a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
The women's team was led by Holly Spicer '13, who swept both of the breaststroke events for the third time this season. Spicer finished the 100 in 1:09.49, while her time of 2:35.26 in the 200 was more than 18 seconds better than the second-place finisher.

"[Spicer] competed well," Murphy said. "She always does-those are her events."

In addition to winning the freestyle relay, the women had three other victories against the Cougars, all from rookies.

Fay Laborio '16 placed first in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:06.32. Fellow first-year Lauren Cruz '16 grabbed first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:40.88. Gabby Drillich '15 rounded out the top results, winning the 200-yard butterfly in 2:33.41.

Neither team will compete again until a Jan. 11, 2013 meet at Boston College, but that doesn't mean that either will be taking much of a vacation.

"We're all practicing here until [Dec.] 21st, then we will be practicing at home with our club or high school team," Murphy explained. "Then we will come back and head to Puerto Rico on Jan. 3, [2013] for our training trip."

The team will be training in an Olympic-style, 50-meter outdoor pool. But the squad won't be on break there-Murphy said that the team will be swimming about eight hours per day.

"We won't just be on vacation," he said.