If you were wondering what the men's swimming and diving team has been up to since Thanksgiving break, it has been practicing. Hard. And it has the results to prove it.
In a the first two meets of a three-meet homestand, the Jumbos defeated NESCAC rival Bowdoin on Saturday with a score of 163-132 and glided over Div. II Babson just two days earlier, with a 155.5-87.5 victory.
"We had some really hard practices coming back from Thanksgiving break," senior Mike Kinsella said. "There has been a really good effort by the guys on the team. We're going to do the work now so we can be our best at the end [of the season]. This is an important time to buckle down."
The team did just that on Saturday, notching its fourth straight victory. Three Jumbos won a total of six events, and the names on the leader board -- Kinsella, senior co-captain Greg Bettencourt and freshman Kyle Jones -- were a perfect blend of veteran and rookie talent.
Bettencourt took first place in the 200 freestyle (1:45:40) and earned the top spot in the 500 freestyle (4:53.66), while Kinsella swiped the 100 freestyle in 48.89 and was less than a second away from the national qualifying standard in the 50 freestyle with his time of 21.56.
Kinsella and Bettencourt were also members of the 200 medley 'A' relay team that beat the second place Jumbos' 'B' team by more than four seconds with a time of 1:37:80.
Jones also made some noise against Bowdoin, as he placed first in the 200 backstroke and 1000 freestyle.
With the loss of sophomore freestyle and breaststroker Andrew Shield, who is out with an arm injury, the team has relied on a variety of swimmers to pick up the slack.
"Andrew is one of our really good freestylers," Kinsella said. "He's been out, which is hard for the team. But Greg and [senior] Justin [Fanning] have been doing great. Each 200 and 500 free they swim, their times have been going down."
Despite the loss, Bowdoin still had a decent showing, as junior Max Goldstein won three events for the Polar Bears -- the 200 butterfly, 200 breaststroke, and 200 IM. Bowdoin freshman Sean Morris and junior Ben Rachlin a pair of wins for the Polar Bears in the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke.
The Jumbos annihilated Babson on Thursday, placing first in all 14 events as Jones, Kinsella and freshman Lawrence Chan each racked up two wins apiece. Chan dominating the 50 and 100 breaststroke and Jones took the 1000 and 500 freestyle. Kinsella hopped on the freestyle bandwagon, with times of 48.47 seconds in the 100 and 1:50:16 in the 200. With their lead safely locked in, the Jumbos swam the 50 butterfly, 200 IM and 200 freestyle relay as exhibition events.
The Jumbos also took the second spot in eight of the meet's 14 events, relegating the top Babson finisher to the third spot in over half of the races and demonstrating the team's depth in several key events.
"When you look at the results, they're not tough opponents," Kinsella said of the Beaver swimmers. "For us, it's not about swimming them -- there's no doubt they have good individual swimmers -- but it's a good opportunity to race other guys on your team and to race yourself."
The Jumbos have also been competing against their own exhaustion, as a tough practice schedule has pushed the team, and according to Kinsella, it is paying dividends.
"I've had coaches tell me that great things are done by tired people," Kinsella said. "You have to be able to train hard and not rest in order to see the results at the end of the season. We need to stop swimming and start racing, and get good starts, turns, and finishes, because it can come down to little things like that. The more we work on those little things, the more they will add up at the end of the year."
The team will face non-conference Brandeis on Tuesday, marking its third meet in six days. It will be the last meet before the team's annual training trip to Florida, after which the strength of the competition takes a big step up.
"We have three big meets coming up right after the training trip -- Williams, MIT and BC," Fanning said. "Even after being broken down through our trip [last year] and a number of difficult practices upon our return, we swam great. I think the memory of how well everyone swam will serve to motivate all of us who are returning."
The Williams meet on Dec. 14 will be a rematch of last year's top two teams in the league. Williams walked away with the NESCAC Championship title in 2005-2006, while the Jumbos posted their best-ever second-place finish.
"Any time you swim a team like Williams, you get up for it," Kinsella said. "We don't need anything else to motivate us. We know what we need to get done."
