The Jumbos opened the swimming and diving season with a busy weekend, one of only two weekends this season that will feature back-to-back meets.
Tufts had entirely different goals for the two meets as well: to open the season with a show of strength at Connecticut College on Saturday before traveling to Boston College (BC) on Sunday to show that it can compete with teams at any level.
It did both.
While Sunday's meet at Chestnut Hill to the Div. I Eagles went down in the loss column for the Jumbos (1-1), the contest marked yet another instance of Tufts athletic teams being unafraid to take on competition outside of Div. III.
Following in the footsteps of Jumbo track and cross country teams, not only did the Jumbos compete, but they showed that they belong.
In the loss, many Jumbos put forth strong efforts despite fatigue from the meet a day earlier and a stiff preseason workout regimen.
"[The meet at BC] was a test to see how well we could swim while tired, and many of the guys performed well under that pressure," senior tri-captain Seth Baron said. "This part of the season is a time where Coach tries to break down the swimmers by increasing the workload and intensity at practice, and we were certainly feeling it."
"[BC] was a tough competitor," Baron continued. "But I think we showed them that Tufts is not a team to blow off, as we had a lot of close races that came down to the hundredth of a second."
Baron's fellow classmate and tri-captain, Mike Rochette, agreed that the meet against the Eagles was a positive experience.
"It was good to face some tough competition early in the season to gauge where we are," Rochette said.
With Sunday's showdown against a school whose athletics department will rack in untold millions of dollars this New Year's, the Jumbos knew how important it was to open the 2004-05 season with a win at Connecticut College on Saturday.
Led by a pair of strong relays that opened and closed the meet, Tufts downed the Camels 169-102.
The Jumbos came out strong against Connecticut College, taking the meet's opening race, the 200-yard medley relay ,and not looking back.
With a veteran team of junior Jon Godsey on the backstroke, senior tri-captains Rochette and Baron on breaststroke and butterfly, respectively, and sophomore Justin Fanning anchoring on freestyle, Tufts took the medley in 1:40.34.
That was only the beginning of the day for Baron, who excelled individually as well on Saturday. The senior provided two more first-place finishes, taking the 200 butterfly in 1:59.17 and topping the field in the 400 IM (4:25.03). Also securing a pair of individual wins' along with a relay triumph was Baron's junior teammate, Brett Baker.
Baker opened his day with a first place result in the 200 freestyle (1:48.41) before sprinting to a victory in the 100 freestyle in 49.09 seconds. Later, the junior displayed versatility in the 100 butterfly, posting a second place finish in 55.67 seconds. To cap off the day, Baker led the Jumbos to a win in the 400 freestyle relay (3:22.61), swimming the first leg, followed by Fanning and a pair of freshmen, with Sean Sullivan third and Chris Wallace anchoring.
The entire freestyle relay team put forth strong efforts individually. Along with his anchor work on the medley relay, Fanning finished second in the 200 freestyle (1:50.39) before taking third in the 100 butterfly (56.70). Sullivan posted a winning mark in the 200 backstroke, swimming it in 2:03.81, making it a two-win day in his first meet as a Jumbo. Wallace also had a solid opening meet, taking second in the 50 freestyle (23.69), along with his relay work.
There were many other big days in the pool on Saturday for Tufts. Junior Todd Putnam posted strong dives, sweeping the events off the one and three-meter boards.
Along with his medley leg, Rochette provided second and third-place finishes in the 100 (1:02.88) and 200 (2:25.60) breaststrokes, respectively.
On Sunday, the senior tri-captain was one of only two team members to win an event against the Eagles, as he captured the 50 breaststroke in 28.27 seconds.
Sophomore backstroke specialist Ray Radovich swam strongly, topping the field in the 100 backstroke (57.83) before providing a third place result in the 200 in 2:05.60.
Following his leg of the medley, Godsey put forth a strong showing in the 500 freestyle, finishing second in 5:12.53. The junior capped his weekend in style as the only other Jumbo to win a race at Boston College, taking both the 50 and 100 backstrokes (25.80 and 55.79).
The team took Saturday's meet very seriously, putting forth its best possible lineup in the absence of juniors Jason Kapit and Greg Bettencourt.
"We put forth one of our best lineups just to see what everyone could do," Baron said. And I feel that people performed up to the expectations for this part of the season. We had a lot of strong performances, like Brett Baker and Justin Fanning in the sprint freestyle events, and also Sean Sullivan and Ray Radovich in the 100 and 200 backstroke."
With some brief time off for Thanksgiving ahead, the Jumbos will return in December with three home meets at Hamilton Pool against Babson, Bowdoin and Brandeis before finals.
By Dec. 11, the dual meet season will be halfway over, but the immediate future appears promising judging by the team's early results.
"Now that we are into our dual meet season we will be busy competing almost every weekend," Rochette said. "So we are just going to try to improve each time we swim."<$>
