After the first day of last weekend's three-day NESCAC Championship meet, the men's swimming and diving team found itself in fifth place overall. Three days and some shuffling at the top later, the Jumbos finished the meet just where they began.
Tufts finished with 1,188 points, vastly improving on the 705 points the team scored at last year's championship meet, the New England Div. III Championships. Williams once again dominated, finishing with 1,609.5 points and the NESCAC title. The Ephmen had won 14 consecutive New England titles prior to the inaugural NESCAC meet. Hamilton (1,468), Middlebury (1,318.5), and Amherst (1,311.5) rounded out the top four.
The highlight of the meet, held at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, was the performance of freshman Tyler Duckworth. He finished fifth in the 200 breaststroke on Sunday with a time of 2:08.74, breaking Paul Kraaijvanger's 12-year-old school record of 2:09.13. Eclipsing his previous best time by almost three seconds, Duckworth qualified for the NCAA tournament.
"Nationals had been a goal in the back of my mind all season," Duckworth said.
Prior to the meet, the team was unsure of whether or not Duckworth would even be in the pool due to an illness.
"To have this sickness was a mental and physical obstacle for me," Duckworth admitted."I was happy just to be there."
Tufts began the meet on Friday by scoring 78 points in the 200 yd. freestyle relay. The 'A' team of freshman Jamie Meyers, sophomore Brendan Smyth, senior Nic Anderson and sophomore Ryna Lahey finished in fifth place after qualifying second behind Hamilton. The team swam slightly slower in finals than in the preliminaries. Sophomore Ed Edson, freshman Aeric Solow, freshman Nic Ghoussaini and junior Scott Cohen of the 'B' team finished second in their heat and twelfth overall.
The Jumbos had a strong showing in the 50 backstroke, as six Tufts swimmers combined to score 105 points in the event. Senior tri-captain Chris Panagos (25.68), freshman Aeric Solow (26.12), and freshman Jamie Meyers (26.15) led the charge, finishing sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively.
Senior tri-captain Nic Anderson began his final meet as a Jumbo by finishing tenth (24.39) in the 50 butterfly. Anderson would score 65 individual points by the end of the weekend, the second highest individual point total for his team.
Friday's highlight was a fifth place finish in the 50 breaststroke by Duckworth. His time of 27.86 was only .06 seconds slower than the third place finisher. Duckworth scored 25 points for his finish and would end the meet with 73 individual points.
Divers Pat Girvin and David Liebenstein both scored points in the 1-meter event. Girvin, a senior who had not qualified for finals in his past three seasons, finished seventh in the preliminaries, with the top eight divers qualifying for the finals.
Girvin finished seventh overall after scoring 364.00 in the finals. His finish gave Tufts 23 points. Liebenstein, a sophomore, finished 14th overall and scored 13 points for the Jumbos.
The Jumbos entered Saturday in fourth place and finished sixth in the 200 medley relay. Panagos, Duckworth, Cohen, and Lahey edged out the Bates team by just half a second.
Anderson had the highest individual finish when he placed fourth in the 100 butterfly with a time of 52.36. He touched the wall just ahead of Williams' Paul Friedberg, who had beated Anderson in the preliminaries.
Sophomore Ed Edson posted his best finish in the 200 freestyle. His time of 1:45.42 earned him a fifth place finish and 25 points. Duckworth continued to swim well, finishing seventh in the 100
breaststroke.
Tufts also exhibited its depth in the backstroke. In the 100, four Jumbos combined to score 55 points as Meyers finished 11th, Panagos 12th, Solow finished 14th and Burlingame 16th.
"Our depth really pulled us through," Duckworth explained. "All of the top teams have stars, we don't have the guys who finish first in events, but we have the guys who finish eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh. Our strength is in our depth."
In Saturday's final event, the 800 free relay, freshman Kaili Mauricio, Smyth, Edson, and Anderson finished fifth. The Jumbos finished Saturday's competition in fifth place as well.
Sunday was dominated by Duckworth's performance, but there were other standouts as well. Sophomore Jimmy Heagle finished fifth in the 100 individual medley, swimming five seconds faster than he had in the team's final regular season meet.
"I was really proud of that," Heagle said, referring to his fifth-place finish. "The preparation was great and that really showed."
Senior John Gunselman placed ninth in the 100 IM. Anderson added an eighth place finish in the 200 butterfly, his third individual event.
The diving competition was completed on Sunday with Girvin qualifying for finals on the three meter. He finished in eighth place, while Liebenstein finished 12th.
In the 400 free relay, the final event of the championships, the Jumbos team of Smyth, Edson, Cohen, and Anderson finished fifth.
Next year's swimming and diving team will have to cope with the loss of seven seniors to graduation, including Anderson and Panagos.
"This year we're losing so many seniors so in that sense [NESCACs] were really special," Heagle said. "It was pretty emotional."
Due to a change in the conference, the Jumbos essentially finished in the same position as they did at last year's New Englands. Their fourth place finish last year came behind Williams, Middlebury and Amherst. This year, Hamilton, a national powerhouse, was added to the NESCAC and finished just behind Williams.
