After suffering back-to-back losses to tough competitors in Williams and MIT, the men's swimming and diving team rebounded with one of its best performances of the season this past weekend.
Tufts dominated the competition at Wheaton on Saturday, beating both the home Lyons 197-93 and NESCAC rival Bates 238-41 to bring their record to 6-2.
"We weren't really too upset after the [Williams and MIT] losses," junior Ben Moskowitz said. "We swam pretty fast against good teams. This was really validation of all the hard work we put in all season. We had fun, raced hard and were able to win pretty handily."
"It was a great meet for our season," senior tri-captain Jeff Goldberg added. "We went into there knowing that we were the better of the three teams, so we all got to race and were able to put in some good swims all around."
Because both Wheaton and Bates are smaller - and relatively weaker - than the Jumbos, coach Adam Hoyt allowed his swimmers to experiment in the water.
"Coach just let us choose what [events] we wanted to do," sophomore Lawrence Chan said. "It was a chance to try new things. When you see people doing other events, you don't know how they're going to do, but a lot of people surprised us, and surprised our coach."
Tufts had high finishers across the board, controlling the meet despite their liberal approach. Sophomore Kyle Jones led the way, winning the 500-yard freestyle by 10 seconds and taking first in 200-yard individual medley. He also placed second in the 200 freestyle, an event in which the Jumbos swept the top four spots.
Junior Matt Murphy was equally impressive, taking first in the 1,000-yard freestyle and placing second in both the 50 and 100 freestyles. He topped off his performance by joining the 400 freestyle relay team, which won by five seconds.
The underclassmen continued their strong season as well. Freshmen Gordy Jenkins and David Meyer won the 50 freestyle and 200 backstroke, respectively. Sophomore Robert Delean won the 100 butterfly, one of three Tufts swimmers sweeping the event's top spots, and classmate Rob Matera continued his incredible diving season, taking first in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives.
"Obviously [the freshman] are very strong and have been performing well all season," Chan said. "It's fun to see these kids swim because they've never been at this level before. I want to see how they do after resting and tapering for our championships. There's a big difference between a tired team and a rested team and how fast they go. We're excited to see how they do."
The Jumbos' margin of victory on Saturday was the largest of any of their meets this season. The two wins came at a particularly opportune time,a reflection of how well the Jumbos have been swimming all season.
"I think it's a combination of things," Moskowitz said. "The hard work, camaraderie, teamwork and sportsmanship that we've had over the course of the season, as well as the coaching for the entire year. There's not just one factor; you need everybody going out, putting their all out there and dominating."
The Jumbos now have only one event remaining - next weekend's Middlebury Invitational - before the NESCAC Championships, also held at Middlebury. The race will provide great preparation for conference championships, since the Panthers will host the event Feb. 8-9.
"I think it's going to be a great opportunity for the whole team to get in some great racing and get some fun before the last race," Goldberg said. "We've got 24 guys going to NESCACs, so this is their last opportunity to race before championships. For the rest of the team, this is their final meet to put everything in that we've been working for the entire season."
