While the majority of the men's swimming and diving team got to relax after NESCAC Championships, for some Jumbos, the toughest competition was still to come.
At the NCAA Div. III Championships this past weekend, Tufts placed 35th out of 53 teams, improving upon last season's tie for 46th. Although junior diver Rob Matera was the lone member of the team to attend the meet last season, seven Jumbos qualified this time around. Tufts was represented by Matera as well as senior quad-captains Andrew Shields and James Longhurst, junior Patrick Kinsella, sophomore Gordy Jenkins and freshmen standouts E.J. Testa and Owen Rood.
The Jumbos broke two team records, and all of the participating swimmers were named All-Americans for top-16 finishes. Testa, Longhurst, Shields and Rood combined to finish 13th with a time of 1:32.36 in the 200-yard medley relay, while Rood, Kinsella, Jenkins and Shields also placed 13th in the 200-yard freestyle relay the next day with a time of 1:22.48.
The final relay to garner All-American honors came by the skin of the Jumbos' teeth. After being the last team to make it through the preliminaries, beating out the next closest school by a mere tenth of a second, Testa, Longhurst, Shields and Kinsella took 16th in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:27.51 in the finals.
"It's great that we got these guys at the meet," Rood said. "That was one of our goals this season. Another goal was doing better than we did last year, and we did that too."
Testa, Rood, Jenkins and Kinsella dropped over seven seconds off the 800-yard freestyle relay time that the team swam at NESCAC Championships, though Testa was the only swimmer who was a part of both races. With a time of 6:52:23, Tufts placed 18th in the event at NCAAs, just out of reach of All-American honors and the team record of 6:48:11, which was set in 2006.
"The 800 free relay record is one of the best records that Tufts has," Testa said. "We didn't beat it, but that was definitely the best event we had at NCAA championships."
Rood also swam the 100-yard freestyle in 45.53 seconds, beating the team record of 46.08 seconds that was set at NESCACs by Shields. Despite this performance, Rood placed 21st out of 60 and did not make it to the finals of the event. Shields also competed in the event, placing 41st with a time of 46.34 seconds.
Jenkins, Rood, Kinsella and Shields shattered the Tufts record for the 400-yard freestyle relay, finishing the event in 3:03.93 seconds and placing 17th in the preliminary rounds, which send the top 16 teams to the finals. Shields had been part of the team that set the previous record, 3:06.00, in 2006.
"We were really happy with all of our relays," Rood said. "Though some of them were slower than they were at NESCACs, they were still good for the season overall."
With only two weeks to train between NESCACs and NCAAs, the Jumbos faced an uphill battle. Matera placed 19th in the 3-meter dive and 20th in the 1-meter dive after placing 14th in both events last year. And although the Jumbos performed well and even improved in some events, most of their times were slower than they'd hoped.
"The NESCAC holds its championships later than most conferences," Testa said. "There was very little time between the meets for us to prepare. It would have been optimal to have three weeks, but we only had two."
Despite the challenge of having little training time, it is clear that Tufts' swimming and diving program is steadily growing stronger, sending more athletes to the championships this year than they have the past two seasons.
"It was a new experience, but a great experience," Testa said. "We just tried to replicate our NESCAC meet. Hopefully we can send more guys next year and more after that and get more points and do even better each year."
