The men's swimming and diving team lost a dual meet at Boston College on Tuesday by a score of 193-173, marking the third straight year the Eagles have sunk the Jumbos.
"It was really a lesson on how to perform under less-than-ideal conditions," said senior co-captain Owen Rood, who won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.24 seconds, one of three Tufts victories. "It was the middle of the week, at night, and we have just begun to taper in preparation for the [conference] championships in the coming weeks."
Tufts' other first-place performances came from sophomores Craig Olynyk — who took first in the 50-yard backstroke in 26.53 seconds — and Johann Schmidt, who won the 3-meter dive.
The Jumbos started strong, with sophomores Christian Jones and Andrew Berman teaming up with seniors Rood and Brandon Ching to place second in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:39.57.
Sophomore Kyle Savidge and senior Lou Tamposi also had strong showings in their distance races. Savidge finished second in the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10:09.47, and Tamposi placed third in the 500 free with a time of 5:00.55.
"Seeing the distance kids muscle through their 1,000s and 500s, after how I felt after my 50 [freestyle], was really impressive," Rood said.
In the 200-yard butterfly, freshmen Kevin Kozikowski, Mike Napolitano and Ian Dinwoodie finished third through fifth, respectively.
Then, in the final event of the evening, the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Jumbos placed second and third. Freshman John Devine and classmate Will Parker paired up with Rood and sophomore Austin Wood for a second-place finish at 1:28.79, while sophomores Olynyk, Savidge and Andrew Turk joined senior Alex Strittmatter just behind their teammates at 1:31.01.
"I thought overall we did really well," Devine said. "We've been going through a lot of training recently, and we swam really well. A lot of us had really strong times, and we definitely swam better than the times showed."
The 20-point margin of defeat was the smallest of Tufts' losses to Boston College in the past three years. Looking forward, Rood is upbeat about what his team can accomplish.
"I'm proud of what we've done," he said. "We've put the training in, but I don't think we've performed at the level that I think we're capable of. We've had some good swims and some bad swims so far this season, and I'm excited and hoping that we really bear down."
Currently, the Jumbos are tapering down by swimming fewer yards at each practice as they begin to prepare for the NESCAC Championships, which will be held at the end of February.
As the team lightens its workouts, swimmers are able to focus on finer points that they might not have been able to under more rigorous training schedules.
"We drop it down each day, the point being to prime your body and really get it nice and rested, but at the beginning your body usually feels kind of down," Rood said.
"You can really focus on your turns, your strokes, on how much you sleep and what you eat. I think people are starting to do this now, and those dividends will start to pay off in the next week or so as we start to put extra focus on swimming," he added.
Next up for the Jumbos is a tri-meet against Wheaton and Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Jan. 28, followed by the Wheaton Invitational on Feb. 3-4.
The NESCAC Championships will be hosted by Williams College on the weekend of Feb. 24.
