Williams prolonged its reign over the NESCAC men's swimming and diving world this weekend in the conference championships at Bowdoin, winning its ninth-straight title and 10 out of the last 11. The Ephs earned 1,741.5 points to edge out the Amherst Lord Jeffs (1,614.5), while the Jumbos finished third with 1,318.
It was the sixth straight year that Williams, Tufts and Amherst have occupied the top three spots, but only the second time in that span that the Jumbos have finished third.
The Jumbos entered the weekend striving for second place, but knew that challenging the Ephs and Lord Jeffs would not be an easy task.
"It was a blast," senior quad-captain Gordy Jenkins said, his voice hoarse from three days of screaming. "It was pretty exhausting but it was so much fun. We would always like to place higher, but we were very content with how we did."
The championships, which began Friday morning and ended Sunday night, featured one preliminary round and one finals round each day.
Williams took the lead on day one and never relinquished it, although the Lord Jeffs made a strong push during the final session. Trailing by 103 points at the start of day three, the Lord Jeffs cut the deficit to just four points with four events remaining. However, the Ephs pulled away late to hold onto their crown. Their 127-point margin of victory was the smallest at the championships since 2003.
Tufts freshman Johann Schmidt, who won most of the events in which he participated this season, took first place in both the one-meter and three-meter diving championships to earn Diver of the Meet. It was no easy task for Schmidt, who placed second behind Amherst freshman Colin White in both preliminaries before overtaking him in the final round.
Senior Trevor Stack received the four-year high-point award for diving after placing fifth in the one-meter and seventh in the three-meter competition.
On Friday, the Jumbos had two NCAA qualifying times in relays. Jenkins, Juniors Owen Rood and E.J. Testa, and senior David Meyer won the preliminary 200-yard freestyle relay before finishing third in the final. Rood and Testa also teamed up with seniors Zed Debbaut and Michael Del Moro for a national B-cut qualifying time in the 400-yard medley relay, placing fourth. Del Moro is also a news editor for the Daily.
Testa topped off his day by setting a Tufts record in the 50-yard backstroke preliminaries and posting a B-cut qualifier in the finals, finishing fourth just ahead of Del Moro. Debbaut also came in fourth in the 50-yard breaststroke, touching the wall 0.22 seconds before Jenkins.
In spite of these performances, Tufts found itself in third at the end of the day with 481 points, trailing Amherst by 95.5 points and Williams by 212.5.
The Jumbos made their strongest push for second place on Saturday evening when freshman Kyle Savidge, senior Joe Lessard and junior Joe McLoughlin finished three-four-five, respectively, in the 1000-yard freestyle.
"[That race] put us within 40 or 50 points of Amherst, and that was huge for us," Lessard said. "[Freshmen] Kyle Savidge and Joe McLoughlin are kind of like the unsung heroes — guys whose names you might not read all the time in the Daily or in the athletics website write-ups, but who consistently swim well ... Two freshmen [Savidge and Schmidt] had our top two performances of the meet, and that bodes well for us in the long term."
The relay team of Rood, Testa, Zebbaut and Del Moro had continued success on day two, taking fourth place and earning B-cut times in both the preliminaries and the finals of the 200-yard medley relay. Del Moro posted two more B-cut times on Saturday in the preliminaries and finals of the 100-yard backstroke, earning fourth in the conference.
Nonetheless, after day two, the standings were unchanged. Williams sat on top at 1,228.5, with Amherst in striking distance at 1,125.5 and Tufts not far behind at 930.
The final session on Sunday night featured seven finals events. The Lord Jeffs won two of the first three, clawing their way to within four points of first place. But Williams kept its cool — as nine-time reigning champs tend to do — proceeding to win the 200-yard breaststroke and the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Williams also received some help from Bates' victory in the 200-yard butterfly and Schmidt's win in the three-meter dive.
Sunday highlights for Tufts, in addition to Schmidt's performance, included Rood, Testa, Meyer and Jenkins' third-place finish and B-cut time in the 400-yard freestyle relay and Rood's fourth-place mark in the 100-yard freestyle.
As always, the Jumbos had an incredible level of energy at the meet, not only from the 24 guys who got in the water but also from the rest of the team, which made the trip to Bowdoin.
"The best part for me was seeing our other 22 guys who weren't swimming for NESCACs rooting for us," Jenkins said. "I had a couple instances where I was just feeding off the energy of our fans."
The Jumbos will now wait to find out which swimmers and divers have earned a trip to the National Championships, which begin on March 23 at the University of Tennessee.
