Jumbos take third at MIT Invitational

The Tufts men's swimming and diving team travelled to MIT this weekend to participate in the MIT Invitational, a three-day meet. The team placed third out of five teams while competing against MIT, New York University (NYU), Keene State and Wheaton College.

The MIT Engineers who took first and the NYU Bobcats came in second. Tufts finished with 1044 total points, 328 points behind NYU and 557 points ahead of fourth-place Keene State.

Coach Adam Hoyt said that he expected the result and was pleased with the team's performance at the invitational.

"I thought we'd be right around third," Hoyt said. "We just wanted to perform the best we possibly could and, overall, the men's team performed really well in both swimming and diving."

Hoyt also noted that even though the swimmers each had to swim a large number of races over the meet, they still swam strong.

"The meet has a pretty grueling schedule," Hoyt said. "It's one of the meets with the most races we ask our athletes to compete in over the course of the weekend."

The MIT meet provides early-season preparation for the NESCAC Championship in February, which also features a three-day format. Despite the lack of rest, the Jumbos put up some impressive individual times throughout the three days of competition.

Sophomore Kingsley Bowen, who represented Tufts at NCAAs as a first-year last season, continued his strong start to his sophomore campaign. He finished fourth in the 100-yard backstroke finals, about three tenths of a second behind the first-place swimmer from MIT, in a tight race. Bowen also finished fourth in the 200-yard backstroke and was part of several Tufts "A" teams for both freestyle and medley relay events.

"I was substantially faster at this meet than I was at this point last year," Bowen said. "The backstroke is feeling really good, and this weekend really bolstered my confidence."

Bowen credited his success partially to his teammates, explaining that the Jumbos feed off each other's success in their respective events for momentum and motivation.

"We fed off of each other's successes," Bowen said. "To see your teammates succeed really gets you excited for each race. When races come down to hundredths of a second, the winner is determined by who wants it more, so being prepared and excited is important."

Senior tri-captain Luca Guadagno shared Bowen's sentiments, noting the significant effect of teammate support.

"Between the men's and women's teams, there are more than 80 of us," Guadagno said. "When we all get out to a meet, it's unreal to have so many people there to support you. On the last heat of the last relay of the meet, everyone who had already swam was behind the blocks cheering the swimmers on. I feel lucky to be on a team where you know everyone will be cheering you on, and not just metaphorically."

Junior Zachary Wallace shone in particular at MIT, where he broke Tufts records in the 200 individual medley (1:51.45), the 400 individual medley (3:58.28) and the 200 freestyle (1:41.01) during his leg in the 800 group relay. Wallace finished in first, third and fourth in those events, respectively.

"The whole team did great this weekend," Wallace said. "Personally, I would say this is the best meet I've ever had. I was very pleased with my performance. I give a ton of credit for my recent success to my teammates, my family and my coaches. They give me so much support and motivation, and they don't stop believing in me."

For his efforts, Wallace received NESCAC Performer of the Week honors. His teammates are not surprised after seeing him train hard this offseason.

"[Wallace] trained this whole summer and really hard through the beginning of the fall," Guadagno said. "He was able to taper down this past week with the intention of really going for it [at MIT]. He's such a hard worker with everything he does. To see him swim so fast this meet really hyped everyone up. After seeing how hard he's worked, [Wallace] deserves all of those times."

In diving, senior tri-captain Matt Rohrer posted second place finishes in the 1-meter and 3-meter events.

The team will travel to Wesleyan for its last meet of 2016 on Dec. 10, where they'll also take on WPI and Williams in the quad-meet.Williams will be a particularly tough challenge as the reigning NESCAC champion for the past 14 years.

Wesleyan will be the site of this year's NESCAC Championship, so this weekend's meet will give the team a good first look at the pool.

"It's going to be great for us to feel out that pool," Guadagno said. "We're going to try to finish out this semester really strong."

The Jumbos will be looking to build off of the strong MIT performance and continue to put up more fast times to end the semester with some momentum to carry into January.