After finishing second at the NESCAC Championships, selected members of the men's swimming and diving team will be looking to finish off the season on a high note when they travel to Minneapolis for the NCAA Division III National Championships beginning today.
The Jumbos will have nine members competing in 13 events at the year's biggest meet, the largest number in coach Adam Hoyt's tenure at Tufts.
Tufts sophomore Owen Rood is the No. 2 seed in the 50-yard freestyle event, after swimming a 20.33-second split in the 200-yard freestyle relay at the NESCAC Championships on Feb 28. Rood will also be swimming the 100-yard freestyle, in which he will enter as the seventh seed, and the 200-yard freestyle, in which he is seeded 23rd.
"I just have to stay calm and not get a little freaked out by the scene that's taking place," Rood said. "Just have to do what I do and keep the routine and know that I have the speed to compete with these kids. Just try and hopefully go as fast as I did at NESCACs, and I'll be fine."
The other Tufts individual qualifiers were senior Patrick Kinsella in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle, junior Zed Debbaut in the 100-yard breaststroke and junior Michael Del Moro, who is also a news editor for the Daily, in the 100-yard backstroke.
"It's definitely an indication of all the work we put in," said senior quad-captain Lawrence Chan, who will not be going to NCAAs but has still been talking to his team and prepping it for the meet. "Not everyone goes to nationals or NESCACs, but we are a team, and everything we did together helps everyone else get better, so it's a team effort. I think everyone understands that, so they're pretty excited to go, but they're not too anxious to see how they'll do."
The Jumbos qualified an impressive five relay teams for the tournament. The 200-yard medley relay team — consisting of Debbaut, Del Moro, Kinsella and Rood — which won the NESCAC title in the event, will be seeded sixth and has a strong chance to garner All-American honors this weekend.
"We need to bring our relays back at night," said Rood, referring to the meet's schedule, which has the preliminaries in the morning and then the finals at night. "To score a lot of points for the team we have to have our relays swim well."
The 200-yard freestyle relay also has Tufts seeded in sixth with the team of junior Gordy Jenkins, Kinsella, Rood and sophomore E.J. Testa, while the 400-yard freestyle relay team of juniors Andrew Altman and David Meye, Kinsella and Rood qualified in 10th. Rounding out the other relay qualifiers, the 800-yard freestyle relay will be seeded 18th and the 400-yard medley relay will be seeded in the No. 19 slot.
""The key is to start off strong tomorrow, because we have all this positive energy and we really need to set the tone really well on day one," Rood said. "We didn't do that well at NESCACs so we need to come out of the gates firing on all cylinders."
In diving, senior quad-captain Rob Matera will make his third appearance at the NCAAs in both the 1- and 3-meter diving events. Matera was an All-American Honorable Mention on both boards in 2008 and he will look to end his successful Tufts career on a high note following his win at the NESCAC Championships in the 3-meter event.
The women's swimming and diving team has only one representative going to Minneapolis, senior Lindsay Gardel, who is qualifying for NCAA Championships for the fourth straight year. Last season, Gardel finished in fifth place at nationals in the 1-meter event, garnering All-American honors for the second time, and this year added a NESCAC championship to her résumé. In the 3-meter event, Gardel is a three-time Honorable Mention All-American, finishing in 14th last year, 12th in 2008, and 11th in 2007.
The modest Gardel, who arrived on Sunday in preparation for her first dive later in the week, has high expectations for herself.
"I haven't actually seen everybody; we had our first practice [Monday], and everyone who was there looks good," she said. "I think only about half of the people are here right now, so I'm not too sure what it's going to end up looking like, but it's going to be a tough meet. I'm not sure the team has any expectations for me, but obviously I'd like to do well."
Relying on experience, she noted, should be key in securing another All-American finish.
"This is my fourth time here; I know how the meet works, and a lot of it is mental at this point," she said. "I can do my dives, I just have to stay focused and we'll see how it goes. But anything can happen. Even in the championships, it's a little overwhelming, it's a huge meet, but as long as I do my dives on both. I know what I'm doing, I just have to do it."
With the morning preliminaries already started, the Jumbos look to channel all the excitement of swimming at the national stage into some positive finishes.
"We're fired up; at this point for us this is a bonus," Rood said. "The opportunity to come out and represent Tufts as hopefully a top-10 team in the country is awesome, so we're ready to go."
Alex Prewitt contributed reporting to this article.
