The Justice

A Brandeis swimmer competes in a butterfly event during the women's swimming and diving team's match against rival Bentley College last Tuesday. Hsiao-Chi Pang/the Justice

On the surface, the swimming and diving teams' meet against Bentley College last Tuesday was just another early-season match, but James Liu '10 admitted the Judges approached the annual rivalry more seriously.

"They're our crosstown rivals," he said. "We just focused more as a team in general, so I guess we were just mentally prepared."

Liu and the rest of the men's team were able to taste victory, as they took nine of 13 events to win 127-99. The women's team, however, did not taste the same success, winning just one individual event in a 133-101 defeat. The men's team moved to 2-2 on the season, while the women's team dropped to 1-3.

Still, assistant coach Scott VanKuilenburg said the fact that the Judges were playing their rival spurred them to strong individual performances.

"[Our swimmers] won't come out and say that one dual meet is more important than the other, but when push comes to shove, you know who [our swimmers] are gunning for," he said. "Nobody likes to lose to the [team] right next to you."

On the men's side, four different rookies won events to lead the charge. Aaron Bennett '11 led the way in the 200-yard butterfly event with a time of 2 minutes, 4 seconds, which was over seven seconds faster than the event's second-place finisher, Joshua Klitenick '11.

Bennett added a second-place finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle event behind fellow rookie Zach Rubenstein '11, who finished with a time of 10:34.29.

Klitenick and Matt Straubel '11 were the other Judges' rookies to win events. Klitenick took the 200-yard individual medley event in 2:04.43, while Straubel held off teammate Bobby Morse '08 to win the 500-yard freestyle in 5:03.02.

"[The rookies] are doing a really great job," Liu said. "We have a young team, so they have a lot of support, and everyone encourages them. They're really comfortable with the team, [which is why] they're swimming really well."

In addition to the rookies, Liu and Nick Rice '08 each won two events. Liu took the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races, while Rice notched victories in the 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke.

Continued...

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