The men and women’s swimming and diving team delivered a powerful punch as both teams handily beat Bridgewater State University on Friday night. The teams took the meet by storm, combining to win 21 of the 24 events held throughout the day. The men won their meet 130-82, while the women were victorious 159-52.

Men — Brandeis 130, 

Bridgewater State 82

On the men’s side, the Judges were able to secure the first win of their season with a nearly fifty-point drumming of Bridgewater. Cameron Braz ’18 led the team with two gold medals, stealing the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. 

Brandeis also nabbed the silver medals in both events, with Evan Thom ’18 and David Lazarovich ’16 stepping onto the podium in each event, respectively. 

Before the meet, Thom commented on the team’s rebuilding season ,saying, “So far I think the team has performed pretty well this season. We might not have a winning record to show for it, but in regards to personal performance I think everyone's doing tremendously. Everyone is passionate about what we do and we give it our all.” His words were spot on, as each swimmer made huge strides during the meet. 

Lazarovich stacked on more hardware as he won gold in the 100-yard backstroke. Brandeis kept the momentum going and stole the event with silver and bronze medal finishes by Adib Milani ’18 and Rich Avrutsky ’17, respectively. 

Zach Diamond ’18 swam to the beat of a gold medal in the 200-yard freestyle, demolishing the next-best competitor by a full 10 seconds. In the same race, Sam Scudere-Weiss ’18 easily took the bronze by a margin of seven seconds. 

Although Brandeis was not able to take the gold in the 200-meter individual medley event, the Judges still came away with a second- and third-place finish from Taku Harada ’18 and Milani, respectively. Harada missed his golden opportunity by an infintesimal twentieth of a second. 

In the longer 500-yard freestyle, Harada  narrowly edged out fellow Brandeisian Diamond by a cool two seconds to take first place in the freestyle event.

Sam Zucker ’18 came out on top by a hair in the three-meter diving event, beating junior Brian Sheehan by a mere one-tenth of a point. 

The last event of the day saw the men’s ‘A’ team top off the fantastic day with yet another gold medal in the 200-yard freestyle relay. 

The men’s ‘A’ team also took top honors in the 200-yard medley relay, adding one more to the men’s total of nine gold medals on the day.

Women — Brandeis 159, 

Bridgewater State 52

The women’s team destroyed Bridgewater by a jaw-dropping 107 points to tack on their third consecutive win of the season. 

To start off the day the women’s ‘A’ team narrowly beat Bridgewater to take gold in the 200-yard medley relay. 

Kylie Herman ’19 then took off, winning the top spot in both the 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly events. Sherry Tu ’18 came in one second later for a silver in the 100-yard butterfly, while Maya Saar ’17 squeezed into third place in the 500-yard freestyle. 

Joanna Murphy ’17 also took home a pair of golds in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle races.

The Judges saw a trifecta of medals come from the 200-yard individual medleys race. Fallon Bushee ’16, Sabrina Greer ’19 and Audrey Fein ’19 crowded onto the podium as first, second and third-place finishers for the squad. 

Diving proved no different with Julia Tartaglia ’19 and Genna Karp ’18 taking first and second place, respectively, in the three-meter diving event. Tartaglia also added a gold to her repertoire in the one-meter diving event.  Karp also added three points to the Judges scorecard with a third-place finish.

Amy Sheinhait ’18 came through in the 100-yard backstroke to take home the coveted gold medal. 

Before the meet, Sheinhait spoke about the team’s continued dominance in the pool explaining, “The team has done great this year. With every meet we continue to learn how to make ourselves better. It’s been a long season, but I think the best has yet to come.” 

Hopefully the best has yet to come, as the Judges will be hard-pressed to improve upon such an incredible performance that came this past weekend. 

Both teams will continue their efforts next Saturday at home versus Clark University before the beginning of the University Athletic Association championships begin in mid-February.