In a matter of 48 hours, the men's swimming and diving team went from having some moderate preseason confidence to boasting a perfect 3-0 record for the third time in the past four seasons.
In dominating fashion, the Jumbos swept the weekend's three opponents by a margin of at least 100 points in each meet. On Sunday, the team took down Brandeis 205-82 at home, following up their equally impressive road romps over Middlebury and host Conn. College a day earlier by the respective tallies of 211.5-96.5 and 196.5-81.5.
"I never could have thought that we'd start out doing as well as we've done so far this year," senior co-captain James Longhurst said. "Judging by how much everyone has improved from last year, even from the end of the season, everyone has stepped up and everyone exceeded all expectations."
Although no records were broken over the weekend, the Jumbos still performed impressively. The dive team, led by junior Rob Matera, swept every event it competed in on both days.
The Jumbos' home meet on Sunday, which served as the seniors' second-to-last home meet of their careers, featured a solid performance from the entire Tufts lineup. The Jumbos placed first in 10 out of 15 events and in the top three in all but the lone event in which they did not field a competitor.
The underclassmen commenced their collegiate careers at Hamilton Pool strong, winning seven events. Freshman E.J. Testa and sophomore Andrew Altman posted two wins apiece to set the pace against the visiting Judges. Testa took first in the 200-freestyle and the 100-butterfly events, while Altman was equally successful in the 100 backstroke and 100 freestyle.
"The underclassmen can really push the strong group of upperclassmen that we have," coach Adam Hoyt said. "All of the classes work together to make each other better --it's a nice environment to have."
In the 400-freestyle relay, the final event for the Jumbos on Sunday, Tufts sent seven squads to the boards. While a team from Brandeis took first place, Tufts' "B" team, comprised of two freshmen and two sophomores, took second place, just ahead of Tufts' "A" team. The "A" team has two seniors (including co-captain Andrew Shields), a sophomore, and a freshman, Owen Rood.
"We like to have the freshmen go against the upperclassmen in the relay," Longhurst said. "Most of them have been training all summer and they came in ready. Some of the freshmen right now are doing really well, and they'll definitely be part of the 'A,' 'B' and 'C' teams in the relays at the NESCAC Tournament."
In Saturday's two showdowns on the road, Tufts took first place in six out of 10 of the individual events. Sophomore Chris Vorlicek paced the team with three victories in the two meets, securing first in the 1,000 freestyle, the 200 breaststroke and the 400 individual medley. Rood had a fine day as well, posting two wins in the 50-and 100-freestyle sprint races and contributing to the Jumbos' winning 200-medley relay team. Tufts also captured third in both the 200 freestyle and medley relays.
"I really think this is one of the best starts of our season we've had since I've been coaching here," Hoyt said. "That's not in reference to the team's times, but the team's attitude and their discipline that they've had over the past three weeks. While it was very exciting to see a number of guys step up and swim fast, it wasn't necessarily unexpected because they've been working really hard."
After four hours of competition away from home on Saturday, the Jumbos had little time to rest before Sunday's matchup against Brandeis. Still, they were able to fight exhaustion to secure the key win.
"Any time you have a long meet on Saturday and then you go into a meet on Sunday, you're bound to be tired," senior co-captain Ben Moskowitz said. "I think the biggest thing we did was that we didn't let it affect us."
After Thanksgiving break, the Jumbos will participate in the MIT Invitational, a meet which gives the squad a chance to swim against larger and more competitive universities.
"There will be six or seven teams there," Hoyt said. "I think we can race with the top teams that will be there, MIT and New York University. Those are the teams we need to be able to race with if we want to be a top team in our conference and in the country. I'm really looking forward to it; I think we can do well."
