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Though the men's and women's swimming and diving teams have sought to gain experience in their first season since 2009-10,  strong individual performances in a variety of disciplines continued to be a consistent theme for the squads in losses to Worcester Polytechnic Institute this past weekend.
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Despite the men losing 157-107 and the women falling 167-95 to the Engineers, the teams each boasted three individual successes.
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Coach Michael Kotch said that, while happy with the performances, he placed swimmers in different events in light of the rapidly approaching University Athletic Association championships.
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"We have spent the last four months working on our events and as we head into the rest phase of our season, I try to evaluate who needs a mental break," he said. "Because we have started to rest, some swimmers might think that they should pop a time early in the cycle, so I use my judgment in who might need a little change of pace."
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In the first event, the women's 200-yard medley relay, Brandeis jumped out to a hot start, leading for the first three legs, albeit by only six-tenths of a second at the final exchange. However, WPI senior Jess Lopez overtook Theresa Gaffney '16 in the final yards of the race, resulting in a defeat by 88 one-hundredths of a second.
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The men's 200-yard medley relay, the next race on the docket for the Judges, proved to be just as thrilling, if not more so. WPI led throughout the entire race but Brian Luk '16 made things interesting after swimming his leg, the butterfly stroke, in 24.17, two seconds faster than his opponent. However, he fell just short in his comeback bid, as the team fell two seconds short in the relay.
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The women's 100-yard backstroke was another race that came down to the wire. WPI's senior Heather Peruffo conceded her slight lead going into the final 50 yards. Her defeat came at the hands of Lauren Cruz '16, who finished her final 50 yards one second ahead of  her opponent. 
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The men's 100-yard backstroke was also an exciting race. Padraig Murphy '14 finished second to WPI senior James Perez-Rogers by 12 one-hundredths of a second. They were the only two competitors to finish the race in under one minute, finishing at 59.70 seconds and 59.58 seconds.
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After a tight backstroke, the 100-yard breaststroke was the third race in a row that was decided by less than one second. WPI sophomore Nysa Casha began the race strongly, leading by over a second going into the final half of the race. Holly Spicer '13 roared back and even led for a brief period of time, but could not complete the impressive comeback. Casha won with a time of 1:12.23, just a mere seven hundredths of a second faster than Spicer.
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Kotch stated that each of the swimmers tested different events this past weekend. Luk, who competed in the 500-yard freestyle in addition to swimming the butterfly in the 200-yard medley relay, was one of them.
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"I had a conversation with Coach early in the season in which we came to terms that I am going be a freestyle sprinter," he said, "and that the butterfly will be my secondary stroke. We tried that out today."
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There were seven other races, at 100 yards or more, that were decided by a two-second margin or less. In fact, 10 total races of 100 yards or more were decided by less than a second. Although the end result was a loss for the Judges, this young team has a lot to look forward to.
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Though disappointed that they fell short of team victories in both meets, the Judges fought throughout all events against a 7-3 WPI men's and women's dual squad. The team will host its last meet versus Regis College this Saturday before concluding the season at the UAA Championships at the University of Chicago, which are Feb. 13 to 17.