The Tufts men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams competed at the Boston Winter Open at Boston University on Friday and Saturday. Tufts’ swimmers and divers who were not initially selected for this season’s NESCAC Championships roster shaved and tapered for this meet. While the meet represented the last one of the season for most of its participants, it also represents the last chance to be selected to fill one of the few open slots on the Jumbos’ NESCAC championships roster.
Tufts swimmers and divers faced opponents from a mix of NCAA Division I and Division III schools, which included Bates College, Boston College, Boston University, Brown University, Bryant University, College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northeastern University.
The men’s team finished fourth in team competition, with many personal best times. One of these personal bests was earned by sophomore Will Stearns, who placed fifth in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.15 seconds. Stearns was the only swimmer not from Brown to place in the top nine in the event.
Stearns said that the team put in a lot of time preparing for the meet.
“We had a training trip to Florida," Stearns said. "We really grinded for almost two weeks. Other than that, I would say the support of our teammates was really helpful because not the entire team swam at this past meet and everyone who wasn’t swimming came to every session and was cheering us on.”
Many other personal best times on the men’s team corresponded to podium finishes. Junior James Kim placed third in the 500-yard freestyle with a season best time of 4:41.97. First-year Vedant Bapna finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a personal best time of 50.56 seconds. The Jumbos swept the podium in the 200-yard backstroke, with personal best times from sophomore Edwin Liang-Gilman at 1:50.63 and Bapna at 1:51.10, and a season best time from senior Ethan Webster at 1:51.36. Sophomore Bora Calis placed third in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:06.27. Junior Sebastian Cai placed third in the 200-yard butterfly at 1:52.44. Liang-Gilman had another personal best time of 1:53.83 in the 200-yard individual medley and a season best time in the 400-yard individual medley, leading him to third place finishes in both events.
The women’s team, on the other hand, finished fifth in the team competition. Junior Allison Brea placed third in the 1,650-yard freestyle at 18:17.05. In the 200-yard individual medley, junior Tory Atkinson placed second with a personal best time of 2:05.90, and first-year Emma Claus placed third with a personal best time of 2:09.43. In the 400-yard individual medley, Atkinson placed first at 4:33.10 while Claus placed second at 4:36.04 — both personal bests once again.
For most participants, this was the final meet of the season and their quests for long-term growth begins now. Others who qualified for NESCAC championships, such as Stearns, hope to improve on short notice.
“For me, I need to work on going back to the fundamentals a little bit and getting my turns filed in more because ... that was the weakest part of my races this past weekend,” Stearns said.
The women’s NESCAC Championships will take place at Colby College from Feb. 10-13, while the men’s will take place at Colby College from Feb. 17-20.
