Over the past weekend, Tufts men’s swim and dive took on their 11 conference opponents at the NESCAC Championship at Middlebury College, placing No. 2 overall after four days.
The Jumbos had worked hard to prepare. “Preparation for our conference meet is definitely a season-long plan,” Senior Brian Uribe wrote in an email to the Daily, describing the immense amounts of effort day in and day out through the winter leading up to February.
The first day saw two second-place finishes in the 4x200 freestyle relay. The A relay consisted of seniors Ethan Schreier and Eric Lundgren, sophomore Rafae Shafi and first-year Ron Lyubman. They finished behind Williams, taking second place overall in the event and making the first podium placement for Tufts. The B relay had first-years Nick Monfort and Sam Harris, along with juniors Armaan Sikka and Nate Pfeffer. The B group finished 13th overall in the event, and the team had three more days to find their rhythm in the water.
The Jumbos picked up their pace on the second day of the meet. Lundgren started the team off hot with a win in the 50 backstroke prelims. In his final NESCAC Championship appearance, he recorded his fourth individual conference title by winning in the finals of the event later that night.
Senior Emmett Adams had a strong finish in the 50 breaststroke, placing second and almost beating his own school record. Senior Soeren Euvrard battled and made the podium in the 50 freestyle, placing third in the event.
Several Jumbo swimmers had top-five finishes on the night, adding crucial points to their overall score after the second day.
The Jumbos didn’t plan on giving up a potential finish in the top three and continued fighting on through the third day.
A powerhouse team in the 4x50 medley relay made up of junior Armaan Sikka, Euvrard, Lundgren and Adams made their mark in the event, setting multiple records. They broke Tufts’ school record, Middlebury’s pool record and the NESCAC record previously owned by Williams. Later in the night, once again dominating his event, Lundgren won the 100 backstroke, just one night after his win in the 50 backstroke.
Uribe put up a lifetime personal best of 50.92 seconds in the 100 backstroke, placing 16th overall in the event.
This will be Uribe’s final season as a Jumbo, and he discussed further the feelings that washed over him in the last moments of the meet.
“The emotions definitely rolled in as I turned for my last lap and touched the wall of my last race,” he wrote, describing the heartfelt emotion that filled his and many of his teammate’s hearts as their athletic careers approached their end. But it didn’t hinder any of them, as he described the feeling as something that fueled him until the final moment of each race.
Following several key scores in the finals of the many nights’ events, Tufts went into their fourth and final day in second place behind Williams, with Amherst closely tailing them.
In a display of absolute talent in backstroke, Lundgren won yet again in the 200 backstroke. The victory marked the fourth time in his Tufts career of taking first in the event and sweeping the backstroke events through his wins in the 50 backstroke, 100 backstroke, 4x50 medley relay and 4x100 medley relay.
More Jumbos finished strong in the finals of their events as they ended the 2025 NESCAC Championship in second place. “I saw many teammates fight for each finish,” Uribe wrote.
For Uribe, great team preparation comes down to full commitment. “Mental preparation … [includes] fully immersing yourself in the idea that you’re competing for something bigger than yourself,” he wrote.
Many of the swimmers that competed in the NESCAC Championships will be competing at the NCAA Division III Championships.
“TUSD [Tufts Swim and Dive] is always striving to be the best that we can be,” Uribe wrote. The Jumbos will have a shot at being the best at the NCAA Division III Championships starting on March 19 in Greensboro, N.C.
