After posting a decent 6-3 record in a winter capped by a surprise fourth place finish at the New England Championship, the men's swimming and diving team heads back to the pool with a veteran squad and high hopes for this year.
The team returns many swimmers who posted their best times New England's, including tri-captain senior Nic Anderson, senior Chris Panagos, and junior Scott Cohen. All three scored top-eight finishes at New England's, and coach Don Megerle is confident that they have not reached their peak. "They can always improve," he said.
Panagos was All-New England last season in the back-stroke and scored fourth and a sixth place finishes at New England's in the 50-yd. and 100-yd. events, respectively. Cohen will continue to swim both the freestyle and the butterfly.
Anderson, an All-American last season, who posted top ten finishes in the 100-yd. and 200-yd. fly at New England's, will lead the team along with tri-captains Steve Capozzi, and John Gunselman, both seniors. Megerle is impressed with Anderson's leadership so far.
"He's a good captain and serious about swimming," Megerle said. "And he backs it up too. This year's captains picked up the lead from last year; they are very supportive."
The Jumbos' return the top finishers from last season in every discipline but the breaststroke. Tim Young, who had two top four individual finishes at New England's, swam the breaststroke legs of the medley relays and was undoubtedly a top swimmer on last season's team. Replacing Young was one of Megerle's biggest obstacles, but he believes that freshman Tyler Duckworth should fill the space easily.
"He did better than I thought he would." Megerle said of Duckworth's performance at the pre-season relay tournament at Wheaton last Saturday. As a whole, the team swam well at the meet. "I think we had 20 better swims than last year's meet," Megerle estimated. The meet wasn't officially scored, as it was merely a warm-up.
Duckworth isn't the only promising freshman though, as freestylers Kaili Mauricio and Aeric Solow are also expected to contribute to the team's depth.
The team's unexpected success at New England's raised expectations for this season, but Megerle isn't worried about his squad meeting them. According to Megerle, they are "looking good in practice and taking a more serious outlook on training. They're doing things right in and out of the pool."
Returning to the diving squad are sophomore David Liebenstein and senior phenom Patrick Girvin. Girvin placed ninth and 11th at New England's last year in the one meter and three meter events respectively and has been the team's most dependable diver for the past three seasons.
The season kicks off with Saturday's meet against Trinity and Clark in Worcester, Mass., followed by the first home meet at Hamilton pool on Monday against Bridgewater. But the Jumbos' first real challenge will come against longtime rivals the Babson Beavers.
"They're good this year, a lot of seasoned swimmers who didn't swim last year and a couple of really good freshmen." Megerle said. The Beavers will arrive at Tufts Nov. 30. In December the team will head to Fort Lauderdale for their annual training trip.
After last year's impressive season-ending performance, Megerle believes the team is capable of anything and concedes that with the talent present on the team it's a mental game now.
"If you can teach them to handle pressure, they not only will swim well, they'll be great people," Megerle said. "You decide to do well or not to do well. The seniors understand it, they've seen from their decisions what they've been able to do."
