Throughout the swimming season, training regimens and competitions are designed so that athletes peak at the right time. For the men's swimming and diving team, that time was definitively on Saturday, when the Jumbos competed in the non-scoring Middlebury Invitational, the team's last meet before the NESCAC championships.
Tapered and shaved, numerous Jumbo swimmers notched their fastest times by large margins, cutting down times from earlier in the season by as much as five seconds.
"Everything had an impact on our performance [at Middlebury]," said freshman Jeremy Adler, who dropped over five seconds from his 200 freestyle time by recording a 1:54.74 on Saturday. "The tapering and shaving we do has a huge impact, but I also look at our training trip to Florida."
The Jumbos' annual winter vacation training trip to Florida helps bring the team together and provides an opportunity to stay in shape after a long winter break and too much holiday food.
Florida wasn't all sunshine for the Jumbo swimmers this winter, however, as junior Carlo Jacob rolled his ankle on the training trip. After battling back from the injury, Jacob returned to earn a selection as the final swimmer on Tufts' NESCAC Championship team following his performance at Middlebury.
"Carlo was plagued by those injuries during the course of the season, but he came back from them and really showed a lot of grit," senior quad-captain Marc Katz said. "When he [rolled his ankle] in Florida, you could see it hurt him while he was swimming."
Going into the meet at Middlebury, there was one slot remaining for another Tufts swimmer at the NESCAC Championships, which will be held from Feb. 24-26 at Williams. Jacob swam a 1:02.95 in the 100-yard breaststroke, coming in fourth place overall, but just .22 seconds behind the first place finisher. The time was nearly 3.5 seconds under his time at the beginning of the season - a figure that helped him earn the coveted spot.
"I was just hoping I'd do well enough to maybe have a chance to get on the [NESCAC Championship team]," Jacobs said. "After the training trip, I wasn't sure how I'd be able to perform because breast stroke is probably my best event. So of course I was proud [after] the Middlebury meet."
Jacob was also quick to point to the accomplishments of other swimmers, specifically citing Adler and senior Jim Fraser, as well as sophomores Eric Connelly and Tim Kolenut.
"Jeremy [Adler] shocked everyone, me included," Jacob said. "I want to watch him in the future, just to see how he's going to do because he's just a freshman now. Jim [Fraser] also swam really well. His breast stroke times were amazing."
Fraser notched a 29.05 in the 50-yard time-trial, a 51.63 in the 100-yard freestyle, a 1:04.44 in the 100-yard breaststroke and swam as part of the 200-yard medley relay team which clocked in at 1:45.24.
Connelly and Kolenut finished first and second, respectively, in the 100-yard time trial, their times separated by just a tenth of a second. Connelly also placed sixth in the mixed 1650-yard/1000 freestyle event with a time of 11:13.36, behind fellow sophomore Jason Koza, who finished third in a time of 10:44.39.
Also standing out in the meet results was senior Aaron Goldman, who swam the mixed 1650-yard/1000 freestyle (11:21.78), the 500-yard freestyle (5:28.54), and the 200-yard time trial (2:01.31).
Kolenut, a museum-school student who doesn't normally practice with his fellow teammates in Hamilton Pool, swam in the 100-yard freestyle event, as well as the 200 and 100-yard butterfly events, placing fifth in the latter with a time of 55.96.
"Some Fridays [Kolenut] will come to practice, and he went to Florida with us obviously, but usually coach emails him the workouts," Katz said.
