After getting off to a solid start on the road, the Jumbos returned home this past week and kept on rolling. With wins over the Babson Beavers (152-109) on Thursday and Bowdoin Polar Bears (158-106) on Saturday at Hamilton Pool, the men's swimming and diving team improved its record to 3-1, its only loss thus far coming at the hands of Div. I Boston College.
Coach Adam Hoyt believes the team's early success is a strong indicator of things to come.
"I think we're on the right track to having a really successful season," Hoyt said. "The guys are putting the work in, and that's really going to pay off down the road."
The team showed its relay prowess in its home opener against Babson, starting off with a win in the 400-yard medley relay on Thursday and not looking back until touching in first in the 400 freestyle relay on late Saturday. In between, numerous Jumbos put forth strong results to contribute to the victories and send the Polar Bears back north winless.
In the Bowdoin meet, sophomore Greg Bettencourt led the way for the Jumbos, winning two events individually as well as teaming to win both relays. In the 400 medley (3:39.75), Bettencourt anchored the freestyle leg, following junior Jon Godsey on the backstroke and seniors Mike Rochette and Seth Baron on the breaststroke and butterfly, respectively.
Bettencourt swam the second leg of the team's winning 400 freestyle relay (3:21.62) to end the day, teaming with classmates Nate Cronin and Justin Fanning along with freshman anchor Sean Sullivan. In between, Bettencourt added to the Tufts margin with wins in the 200 and 500 freestyles, in times of 1:48.19 and 5:01.38, respectively.
Godsey also picked up multiple solo wins against Bowdoin. The junior followed his contribution to the opening relay win with wins in the 200 backstroke in 2:02.86 and the 200 individual medley (2:04.91).
Godsey attributes the team's early winter success to a new training regimen.
"We're doing a lot more yardage [in practice], and the intensity has been a little higher than it has been in the past," Godsey said. "To be swimming this fast now, people are excited for what's going to happen later in the season."
Tri-captains Rochette and Baron picked up individual victories of their own, as Rochette won the 100 breaststroke (1:03.38) and Baron took the 200 butterfly (1:58.67). Cronin finished first in the 200 breaststroke in 2:21.94, while classmate Fanning topped the field in the 100 freestyle (49.17). Rounding out the event winners against Bowdoin were juniors Seth Rosenberg in the 1000 freestyle (10:34.60) and diver Todd Putnam, who won off of the three-meter board.
With the loss, the Polar Bears fell to 0-3 on the season.
On Thursday night, not only did the Jumbos topple now 5-3 Babson, but the team did it in runaway fashion. Defying typical early season standards, many Tufts swimmers won their races and set personal records, including two Hamilton Pool records.
The first Hamilton Pool record to fall against Babson was the 100 butterfly, which Bettencourt won in 53.32 seconds, a career best time for him. The other pool record to fall was the 400 freestyle relay. Junior Brett Baker along with Godsey Fanning, and Baron broke the 24-year old mark in a blistering time of 3:16.27 seconds.
"We knew ahead of time it was going to be close, just based on all of our times," Godsey said. "We knew shooting for the record would be realistic."
The records came as a shock to Hoyt, who knows swimmers' best times normally come later in the season after they reduce their training.
"The team performed beyond all expectations," Hoyt said. "We had two pool records set on Tuesday night, one of which had stood for 24 years. That was very impressive. We also had multiple career best times."
Putnam and Rochette put together multiple event wins for the Jumbos on Thursday night. Putnam put it all together in the diving department and swept the events off the one- and three-meter boards. Rochette won both the 50 and 100 breaststroke races (28.13, 1:02.90).
Tufts was successful at all freestyle distances against the Beavers, winning the 50, 100, 200 and 1000 freestyle races.
Godsey knew the importance of the team putting up such strong results to open the season.
"Just based upon our swims in the past three or four meets, people are really impressed with how we're performing and anticipating how we'll be later in the season," the junior said.
Brandeis is the next team on the Jumbos' radar as the Judges visit Hamilton Pool, where records are apparently always in jeopardy, Saturday at noon.
Further ahead is a winter break trip to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. where Godsey and his teammates are looking forward to train and bond as a team.
"It's team tradition to go down and work out together," Godsey said. "We usually do 10,000 yards a day as a team plus some dry land work. It's a big commitment but hopefully it will bring us together as a team and help us for later in the season."
