The men's and women's swimming and diving teams, in their home opener on Saturday against Wesleyan University at Joseph M. Linsey Sports Center, fought valiantly against the Cardinals but were not able to garner enough points to steal a victory.

The men picked up eight individual victories on the afternoon while the women gathered just one victory and a handful of second-place finishes on the afternoon.

 "It's a lot of fun [to swim at home]," said Max Fabian '15. "Home meets are fun because you've got people there watching and everyone stepped up and did really well."

The women, who fell by a final score of 217-35, began the day on a high note with a win in the 1000-yard freestyle. Theresa Gaffney '16 touched the wall ahead of Wesleyan junior Margaret Daly to finish the race with a time of 12 minutes, 5.60 seconds to Daly's 12:21.18.

Gaffney just missed the podium in her next event-the 200-yard freestyle-when her time of 2:15.35 registered just eight one-hundreth of a second behind Wesleyan freshman Amy Hood.

Fabian said he was particularly impressed with the way Gaffney has grown into a leader for the women's team so far.

"[Gaffney is] a really hard worker and a great teammate," he said. "She came a long way as a teammate and really is great to have on the team. She does a really great job leading this year."

The women's team was also barely out-touched in the 50-yard freestyle, as Fallon Bushee '16 fell to Wesleyan freshman Serena Zalkowitz by 10 milliseconds. Bushee's time of 25.96 seconds was an improvement on her time during the prelims but was not enough to overcome Zalkowitz.

Elsewhere, the Judges received strong performances from Fabian, Brian Luk '16 and Edan Zitelny '17 to hold their own against a team with twice as many swimmers.

Although the men fell by a 132-105 margin, the Judges gained two wins from Fabian and three from both Luk and Zitelny.

Fabian continued to dominate the 1000-yard freestyle, recording a final time of 10:06.84, both an improvement on the preliminary time by two seconds and almost 23 seconds faster than the second-place finish. Fabian also took home a first-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:57.59, nearly five seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Zitelny completed a strong day with wins in the 100-yard backstroke, 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard individual medley. He battled Wesleyan junior Stefan Brown in the 100-yard backstroke and finished with a commanding three-second victory over his Wesleyan opponent. Zitelny snuck past Wesleyan freshman Nathan Courville, finishing just 17 milliseconds before his counterpart. Zitelny once again edged an opponent in the 200-yard IM, securing a time of 2:06.84 that was just 21 milliseconds faster than Fabian's own finish.

Zitelny impressed the veteran Fabian with his three wins for the day.

"He's a great addition and he's happy to break out," said Fabian. "I'm excited to see what he can do."

The Judges' eight individual wins were rounded out with three by Luk in the 200-yard, 50-yard and 100-yard events. Luk took home first in the 200-yard freestyle with a final time of 1:46.80, the 50-yard in 22.15, and finally, the 100-yard with a victory in 48.07 over Wesleyan senior captain Russell Madison.

Both teams return to the pool this Saturday, traveling across Waltham to face their local rivals in a meet at Bentley University.