With one last tuneup before the championship season begins, the men's swimming and diving team took to the pool at the Wheaton Invitational on Saturday. Even though the Jumbos posted competitive times in some events, a lack of adequate star power hindered the team in a number of events.
Although the meet was not scored for the teams and the Jumbos consistently placed multiple swimmers in the top five, they remained winless for most of Friday, often falling to swimmers from No. 1 MIT. Saturday followed in a similar pattern until junior Christian Jones and sophomore Ian Dinwoodie came in first and second, respectively, in the 1650-yard freestyle.
Jones was the only Tufts individual swimmer to pick up a win, but he was not the only Jumbo swimmer to have a good meet. Junior Craig Olynyk placed second in the 100-yard backstroke, despite being seeded ninth, and also swam in the winning 400-yard freestyle relay to close out the meet for the Jumbos.
With this being the last meet of the season for 14 of the 38 swimmers, coach Adam Hoyt was impressed with swimmers like Olynyk who ended their seasons on a high note.
"Measuring the guys' improvements, it was one of our best performances at the Wheaton Invite since I've been coaching at Tufts," Hoyt said. "I'm very proud of the team and how they raced."
For the first time all season, freshmen standouts Michael Winget, Cam Simko and Anthony Debenedetto failed to come in first in any race. Likewise, juniors Drew Berman and Kyle Savidge came home without any individual first-place finishes. Their performances were still solid, however, with each of them adding at least one top-five finish and Savidge and Berman teaming up with classmate Olynyk and sophomore John Devine to win the 400-yard relay.
It was a different story in the diving well, however. Junior Johann Schmidt won both the one and three-meter dives. For Schmidt, the meet was his last chance to compete before he looks to defend his NESCAC titles in both events. Despite his success over the last two years, Schmidt knows that a championship run will not get easier.
"Every year it gets tougher and tougher, especially because I know [Amherst junior Colin White] would love to win this year, and Asher [Lichtig], a freshman at Amherst, is looking to win as well," Schmidt said.
Schmidt and the rest of the team now have two weeks off before the NESCAC championships begin on Feb. 22. The Jumbos will travel up to Wesleyan as they look to repeat their top-three performance from last year.
