While last weekend's two−day Wheaton Invitational was a non−scored meet, the competition was still highly important for the members of the men's swimming and diving team looking to qualify for the upcoming postseason meets.
For the 24 Jumbo swimmers and divers who will make the trek to Williamstown, Mass. in late February to compete in the NESCAC Championships, Wheaton was a chance to put the scoreboard in the backseat and have some fun swimming in different events.
But for the other half of the team, this was the final meet of the season, an opportunity to end the year on a high note with personal record swims in prominent events.
And for five seniors, the Wheaton tournament was the culmination of a college career.
"The Wheaton Invite is a great opportunity for some guys to swim their primary events in what is their championship meet," coach Adam Hoyt said. "With a no−scoring meet, we can focus less on the final score and more on individual races. And for the NESCAC guys, it's a final tune−up, a chance to work on some different race strategies."
The tournament was the final collegiate swim for senior quad−captain Rob Delean, as well as fellow fourth−years Jon Cohn, Rowan Frankel, Matthew Miller and Braulio Rivas. While the team as a whole was able to touch first in 12 events — the most out of any team at the tournament — Saturday's swims were particularly special for these Jumbo veterans.
"Everyone always drops a good time [at the Wheaton Invite], but especially for the seniors, it was very emotional," Delean said. "There was a lot of excitement at the end, but we are all really sad to call it a career."
But as five seniors said goodbye to their collegiate swim careers, a new era of youth was ushered in.
Sophomore Owen Rood led the team, taking part in four first−place finishes, individually winning the 200−yard freestyle — an event he traditionally does not swim in — and taking part in the victorious 200− and 400−yard freestyle relays and the 400−yard medley relay, while two freshmen, Jack Thomas and Ben Newman, garnered first−place finishes of their own, in the 100−yard freestyle and 200−yard individual medley, respectively.
Complemented by other impressive rookies — such as freshmen Dylan Portelance, who won the 100−yard freestyle time trial, and Beckett Linn, who took first in the 50−yard time trial — the younger members of the team are poised to play larger roles in the future.
"We love to see the freshmen doing well, since they are the future of the team," Delean said. "Dylan and Jack have been two of our best swimmers all year, and Beckett had an outstanding meet."
Linn's performance Saturday was so impressive that on Sunday he was named the final member of the Jumbos' NESCAC roster, which was missing one swimmer heading into the Wheaton meet. Hoyt hopes that Linn's talents in the butterfly events will help the Jumbos in their push to end Williams' streak of seven consecutive NESCAC titles.
"Beckett posted some really impressive times in his events compared to both our team and the conference as a whole," Hoyt said. "He did a great job in the butterfly events, an area where we have been weak recently."
The 12 first−place finishes Saturday were spread out among many different Jumbos, some of whom participated in totally different events than they had all year. Junior Eddie Mayerson, who usually does not swim in the 400−yard individual medley, was able to win the event with a time of 4:19:65.
Meanwhile, senior quad−captain Rob Matera went about his usual business, sweeping the two diving events at the invitational.
The 24 Jumbos on the NESCAC roster will now spend the next few weeks preparing for the conference meet, starting on Feb. 26 at Williams College. The Jumbos will head into the championship meet confident after numerous strong individual performances at Wheaton.
"I think that winning a number of events at the meet was really nice and shows how competitive our team is," Hoyt said. "The best indication was taking guys' histories and comparing seasons past. There were a number of standout lifetime−best performances [at Wheaton]. It was definitely a satisfying meet."
