The men's swimming and diving team refuses to slow down. Despite just two weeks of rest after final exams, a training trip to Florida squeezed in over the New Year, and four dual-meet opponents in the past week alone, the Jumbos haven't shown are heading towards another impressive season finish.
Tufts defeated Wesleyan, MIT and Div. I Boston College by sizable margins last week, falling only to last year's NESCAC champion and rival Williams since returning from winter break. After finishing out 2005 with a 5-0 dual-meet record, Tufts is now 8-1 after the Williams loss.
"You never like to lose, so obviously [the loss to Williams] was tough to swallow," junior Mike Kinsella said. "Williams is always a great team, but this might be one of their better teams ever. Going into our meet against Boston College, it's not that we were disappointed by the Williams result necessarily, but you could say we were definitely motivated."
"Motivated" may have been an understatement. Just three days following the Williams loss, the Jumbos clobbered visiting Boston College 192.5-155.5, breaking eight Hamilton Pool records in the process. The Jumbos placed first in 15 of the 17 swimming events.
"We wanted to stick it to them because we had just lost to Williams and because they're Division I," Kinsella said of the meet. "It was incredible. I think we were all in awe of how we were swimming."
Senior co-captain Brett Baker agreed.
"We lost to [Boston College] last year, and that was the first time we had ever swum against them," he said. "It was exciting for us to beat a Division I school, especially a school like BC that's reputable at other sports. For us to completely demolish them - wow, that was exciting."
The Jumbos set new Hamilton Pool records in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard butterfly, the 50- and 100-yard backstroke, the 200-yard freestyle, the 200-yard medley relay, and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
The superb performance of the Tufts' upperclassmen paved the way against the Eagles - swimmers from the classes of 2006 and 2007 combined for 23 first- and second-place finishes, including relay events.
But the Tufts underclassmen also made a dent against BC. Sophomore Sean Sullivan, along with freshmen James Longhurst, William Froehlich and Andrew Shields each had a second-place finish, and had another of their captains singing praises.
"Our team is swimming really well lately. Shields for instance, had mono in the beginning of the season," said senior co-captain Jason Kapit, who had a hand in four of the eight new Hamilton Pool records. "Now that's behind him, and after our training trip he is able to race to his full potential."
The easy victory against Boston College was not repeated last Saturday at MIT, however, as the Jumbos found themselves down at the halfway point against the Engineers before putting the meet away 164-130.
"We went in there fairly confident that we could win the meet, but at half it was a lot closer than we expected," Kapit said. "MIT started having one of its best meets of the season against us right about halfway through, but we regrouped and pulled it out at the end."
Although the Jumbos didn't notch nearly as many first-place finishes against MIT as they had against Boston College, it was their depth that prevented a loss. Tufts finished in second-place in five of the seven races they didn't win, and scored at least three points in every event. Senior diver Todd Putnam also finished first in both of his events, securing 18 of the Jumbos' total points.
This Saturday the Jumbos travel to Bates for their final regular season dual-meet, although the results are of little significance. In addition to Bates having only eight total swimmers on their team, compared to Tufts' 42, the Jumbos are already looking ahead to the two post-season meets before Nationals: the Middlebury Invitational on Feb. 4, and the NESCAC Championships at Williams from Feb. 24-26, where Tufts will have the chance to avenge its regular-season loss to the Ephs.
