The men's swimming and diving team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday, dropping its home opener to Keene State College, 178-122.
Though the Jumbos were 2-0 coming into the meet, they were clear underdogs against a sixth-ranked Keene State squad that's been training for ten weeks compared to Tufts' three.
Freshman Greg Spiropoulos felt this disadvantage was most obvious at the end of races, when the Jumbos were unable to keep up.
"[We] fell short on our turns and finishes," Spiropoulos said. "Keene showed us how to race the last 50 like champions. All of those kids caught up to us on the final lap and really got their hands to the wall first when it mattered."
Coach Adam Hoyt noticed this as well but is confident that it's only a matter of time before the Jumbos are able to finish their races in the same fashion.
"I believe with some more training and keeping our team healthy we'll be able to finish our swims the same way in a few weeks," Hoyt said.
To their credit, the Tufts swimmers showed signs of improvement by posting better times than those of their first meet. The Jumbos had five first-place finishes overall and finished second in both the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay.
Senior tri-captain Johann Schmidt took both diving events for the second week in a row, scoring 314.82 points in the one-meter and 375.95 in the three-meter.
Sophomore Michael Winget, former NESCAC Performer of the Week, had another strong showing, winning the 100 backstroke in 53.03 seconds and finishing second in both the 200 backstroke and 100 butterfly.
Freshmen swimmers William Metcalfe and Spiropoulos built off their strong collegiate debuts with excellent encore performances. Metcalfe won the 100 butterfly with a 52.49 time and also finished second in the 200 individual medley. Spiropoulos won the 200 breaststroke again with a 2:12.60 time.
Spiropoulos said that while he and his classmates feel pressure to be just as good as the team's more experienced upperclassmen, such expectations are accelerating their improvement.
"The team counts on us more than I could have anticipated, and we never want to let them down," Spiropoulos said. "The fact that we actually matter already definitely encourages us to be even stronger contributors and lead future classes to greatness."
Sophomore Cam Simko is excited to see the freshmen already swimming at such a high level and making key contributions to the team.
"It's great that the freshmen are in shape and getting us those vital points," Simko said. "They light a fire under all [of us] and add some much-needed healthy competition."
It's clear that freshmen are going to be instrumental to Tufts' success going forward. The Jumbos get next weekend off for Thanksgiving before wrapping up the fall semester with the MIT Invitational Dec. 6 and 7. Though the layoff may have a brief negative effect on their strength and conditioning, the Jumbos will come back fully-rested and expecting to close out the semester on a high note.
"The MIT Invitational is a very different kind of meet, but we are rested and allowed to use fast suits for it," Simko said. "It's our final meet of the semester before our training trip, so I'd expect some pretty fast times coming from us."
