Men's swimming off to stellar start

The Men's Swimming and Diving team got their home season off to an auspicious start at Hamilton Pool last Monday with a convincing victory over the Bridgewater State Bears 163-61. In the team's second meet of the season, it showcased a depth of talent by destroying Bridgewater in a complete team effort. This was the second non-conference match, and it improved the Jumbos' record to an undefeated 2-0.

"The team was exceptionally pleased with the results of the Bridgewater meet," Coach Don Megerle said afterwards.

The Jumbos won every event except for the 100-yard individual medley and the two diving competitions. The second event of the meet, the 200-yard freestyle, set the tone for the rest of evening as the Jumbos swept the event. Tufts sophomore Alex Turner won the race with a time of 1:49.99; freshman Brett Baker was next at 1:50.57; and junior Kaili Mauricio came in third at 1:52.59 to complete the routing.

All the regular Jumbo contributors played a part throughout the rest of the events. Junior Tyler Duckworth won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.37), followed by sophomore Michael Rochette (1:03.62) in second, with junior Greg Schmidt (1:05.31) grabbing third place. Sophomore Seth Baron won the 500-yard freestyle (5:01.82), with Jumbos Mauricio (5:08.67) and Turner (5:14.21) following in second and third. Seniors Ryan Lahey (22.48 seconds) and Ed Edson (22.73 seconds) were the first two to hit the wall in the 50-yard freestyle.

The team's complete dominance was displayed in the relay events as well, as it won both handedly. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Tufts' teams took the first three spots. Turner anchored a first-place 'A' team with a time of 22.8 seconds. In the 200-yard medley relay, the Jumbo teams placed first and second. Team 'A', comprised of Lahey, Rochette, Baron and junior Nick Ghoussaini, blew away the competition with an astounding 1:41.82 time, more than five seconds faster than the first Bridgewater team to finish.

The 100-yard freestyle was another event in which Tufts shone, capturing the first three spots. Ed Edson tagged the wall first (48.91), followed by Brett Baker (50.09) at second, and Andrew Burbach a mere 0.89 seconds behind Baker. Both Burbach and Baker were representing this year's tremendous freshman class.

Fellow freshman Seth Rosenberg, recovering from a week-long battle with the flu, proved that he too could contribute to the team's success, winning the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 56.45 seconds.

Another freshman, Jonathon Godsey, also earned some points for the squad in the 100-yard backstroke, the most competitive race of the evening, and beating Bridgewater sophomore stand-out Hajime Yoshimura by less than half a second. Yoshimura tried his best to make the meet respectable. He took the 100-yard individual medley, beating out Baron, for the only Bridgewater win in the swimming events.

The loss was Bridgewater's first of the season, dropping them to 2-1. The last non-conference contest for the Jumbos will come this Thursday against 4-0 Babson at Hamilton Pool. After Thursday the in-conference season begins, as does the squad's quest to avenge last year's fourth place finish in the NESCAC Championships.