The men's swimming and diving team wrapped up another win at Hamilton Pool last weekend when it overwhelmed the Brandeis Judges by a 174-120 score. With the victory, the Jumbos upped their unblemished record to 9-0 on the season.
With the season coming to a close, the team is now tapering for next weekend's meet and the subsequent NESCAC championships.
The Jumbos displayed great depth against Brandeis and nearly swept a number of events. Though it can be argued that Brandeis brought less talent to the pool, this was the same squad that defeated Babson earlier in the year - a team that the Jumbos defeated by only a 131-110 margin on Nov. 29.
Sophomore Tyler Duckworth was a big contributor, winning the 200-yard Individual Medley (2:00.52) and the 100 breaststroke (1:02.02)
Sophomore Josh Edwards and junior Brendan Smyth also put forth strong performances. Edwards significantly improved his season times in the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke, dropping his fly finish by 4.5 seconds with a time of 1:04.00 and nearly six seconds in the backstroke to finish at 1:06.91.
"I was happy with my time and with the team's performance," Edwards said. "Our depth has helped us for many meets, but it will be different with Williams because they also have a lot of depth."
Smyth had strong finishes in the 200 (1:53.30) and 500 freestyle (5:16.29) He performed particularly well considering that he had been swimming short distance events for most of the season.
Though the Jumbos fared well last weekend, they must prepare for a much different type of meet now. The Williams Ephs, a who sport a strong 8-1 record and a recent win over Middlebury, are a perennial New England powerhouse and will be tough competition.
The Williams squad will be lead by last year's NESCAC championships coach of the year Steve Kuster and player of the year Jeff McBride. It will be a battle of two strong traditions, as Kuster will square off against Tufts coach Don Megerle, who has thirty years of coaching experience under his belt.
"Williams is a very dominant team," Megerle said about the Ephs earlier in the season. "They are a strong squad, but we too have potential to perform really well."
Although Megerle is opening up 24 spots for swimmers to compete in the NESCAC Championships, 19 or 20 players have already been selected to compete. The Williams meet will serve as the last contest for many of the swimmers.
With a few remaining spots available, many swimmers will be working to better their previous best times.
"There are a lot of people who have been doing well the past couple weeks," Edwards said. "I wouldn't really want to speculate on who those last spots might go to. I think that it is going to be really close amongst a bunch of swimmers."
Tapering is underway, as swimmers are reducing volume in their muscle mass to induce improvements on muscle strength and power. With the taper, training has been decreasing. While at the beginning of the season, swimmers would swim up to 3,500 yards a day, the tapering has brought them down to swimming only about 2,000.
The method of muscle mass reduction for swimmers extends outside of practice as well, as the swimmers are put on early sleep schedules and demand much more body rest.
"Coach Megerle runs an interesting taper," freshman Rich Halpert said. "Our training already starts with medium to low intensity at the beginning of the year, and is reduced even further as we are tapering for the championships."
As for this weekend, the swimmers are excited for the opportunity to improve their season times and to maintain their undefeated record.
"I think that Williams is going to be a really tough meet for us on Saturday, but I expect that a lot of people are going to do some very impressive times," Edwards said.
The Jumbos will compete in Williamstown on Saturday at 4 p.m.
