The men's swimming team wrapped up a perfect 5-0 first half of the season on Tuesday night at Hamilton Pool, defeating local rival Brandeis, 155-106.
The Jumbos dug themselves into a hole early on when they got two lanes disqualified in the opening event, the 200 meter medley relay, which forced them to play catch-up for the rest of the meet.
"The meet definitely got off to a rough start, as there was some confusion with the officials and the start of the relay," senior Mike Kinsella said. "After that we had to dig kind of deep because we didn't want them to come into our house and push us around."
The Jumbos followed the rough opening event with a one-two finish in the 200 freestyle (senior co-captain Greg Bettencourt and freshman Gene Kurtysh) and a one-three in the 100 backstroke (senior Justin Fanning and junior Tim Kolenut). Trading the lead with the Judges for much of the first half, Tufts did not pull away until halfway through the meet.
"With classes coming to an end and the guys putting their focus on finals, the meet started close," coach Adam Hoyt said. "The close start helped us regain our focus for the rest of the meet."
The 100 freestyle and the 200 backstroke, coming in the middle of the meet, served as the turning point, as Tufts dominated the events and earned itself a windfall of points with first, second and third place finishes in the 100 freestyle and a one-two finish in the 200 backstroke.
Solid performances from the senior class led the Jumbos for the duration of the meet. Bettencourt handed the Jumbos two wins, taking first in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:45.68 and winning the 500 freestyle, touching in 4:50.51. Kinsella also gave the Jumbos a boost, taking first in both the 50 and 100 freestyle. He blew by the competition in the 100 in a time of 48.63 in the 100 and is just tenths of a second away from a national qualifying time in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.57.
"Greg and Mike are swimming great so far this season," Hoyt said. "All of our seniors are certainly leading the way in the pool for the team overall."
Kinsella and Bettencourt were not the only seniors to step up with key wins, however, as classmates Fanning and co-captain Ray Radovich also combined for two wins in the backstroke. Fanning won the 100 backstroke in 55.51, and Radovich took the 200 in 2:03.40.
"All the guys have worked really hard this year so far," Hoyt said. "It is surely going to pay off, not only on our training trip, but also next semester."
Freshman diver Rob Matera also contributed to the Jumbos scoring, turning in two wins of his own in the 1- and 3-meter dives with scores of 232.42 and 256.95, respectively.
The Jumbos have just one week of training before breaking for the holidays.
"This week, practice should be more of the same," Kinsella said. "I expect Coach to continue to work us hard. We'll also focus on some more small racing things such as starts, turns, and finishes now that we don't have any meets for a while."
With the first half of the season under their belts, the Jumbos can now look ahead to second semester meets and the NESCAC Championships, which looms large, even still two months away. The Jumbos resume competition on Jan. 14 when they take on defending NESCAC champion Williams in a tri-meet along with Wesleyan.
"During our first-semester meets, we did a lot of things well as a team and posted some good times," Hoyt said. "It will be a good benchmark for what is to come."
"This meet was definitely a good way to wrap up the first half of the season," Kinsella said. "We've all had some good things, but there is still so much to work on to get to where we want to be."
