Sam Dienstag ’24, TJ Carleo ’26, Rebecca Suarez ’26, and Haley Nash ’24 earned UAA Athlete of the Week honors for the weeks of Jan. 22, Feb. 5, Feb. 11 and Feb. 25.

Sam Dienstag ’24

For the second time this Swim and Dive season, Dienstag earned another UAA Athlete of the Week honor for the week of Jan. 22. This is his third overall honor, his second coming from the beginning of the season in October He earned this honor upon his first returning meet — the final home meet of the season — after being ill with infectious mononucleosis for much of the season. Leading the way for the Judges against Keene State, he placed first in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 15:57.96 and first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:47.65. 

In an interview with The Justice on Mar. 8, when discussing being out with mono for the majority of the season, he says he “keeps persevering and never counted himself out [of the] season.” This could be seen in this season’s performance when he improved his 1650-yard freestyle time at the 2024 University Athletic Association Championships by 21.25 seconds, for a season's best time of 15:36.71. This gave him second place in the conference meet and ranked him tenth in Division III, earning him a spot at the 2024 National Collegiate Athletics Association Division III Championship. At the UAA Championship, he also earned an additional spot to nationals with his win in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:25.83, ranking him fifth in Division III. 

When discussing the upcoming national championship, he said he was “looking forward to nationals, I just want to do my best and finish strong.” This positive mindset doesn’t seem to come from nowhere as Dienstag started his career at Brandeis during the fall semester of 2020. Thismeant for his first year he couldn’t train with his teammates due to COVID regulations. In an interview with the Justice, head swim coach Nicole Carter said, “he's grown so much socially, leadership wise, all those types of things. So I really just want him to end it on a confident note.” Carter continued, saying, “Just being no matter what, the last race is done like he's proud of what he's done, no matter what the clock says.” This support clearly had an impact on Dienstag and hopefully we will see the positive effects of this support on Dienstag’s performance next week.

TJ Carleo ’26 

For the first time in Carleo’s collegiate indoor track career, he earned another UAA Athlete of the Week Honor for the week of Feb. 5, his second overall honor. He earned this honor at the Tufts University Cupid Invitational with a second-place finish in the 800-meter run, with a time of 1:54.31, which when accounting for the flat track, this converts to 1:52.70, which ranked him 16th in NCAA Division III. Since then he ran on the fast-banked track at Boston University’s David Hemery Valentine Invitational getting a time of 1:51.58 — just 0.54 off of the indoor school record — which also earned him another Judges of the Week award. He then went on to place second in the 800 meter at the 2024 Indoor UAA Championships, which also earned him another All-Association honors. He then further improved his time at Tufts National Qualifying Meet on Mar. 2 in which he managed to run a 1:52.43, which converts to a 1:50.85, which ranked him 11th in Division III and secured his ticket to the Division III Indoor National Championship — his first ticket to indoor nationals and his second overall. At the national championships, he unfortunately was not able to keep up with the fast-paced heat, as the leaders of the heat and top seeds of the preliminary round all came from Carleo’s heat. He kept up with the leaders as they went out hot, coming in their first laps at a very aggressive low to mid 26 with Carleo in fourth in the heat with a high 26. In the two laps after he kept a strong but slower pace in the 28’s but in his final lap the effect of the competitive first lap paid its toll taking 31.03. He finished with his slowest time this season — accounting for the banked track — at 1:54.33. Despite this, Carleo remains positive about his season saying, “the season as a whole was a good one. It had ups and downs throughout but I was really happy with the progression I made. It’s a bummer to end it with not my best race at nationals but that’s the sport. At this time last year, even going to nationals was still a dream.” This sentiment is echoed by Carleo’s primary coach, Michael Schmidt, who was very positive about his overall season, saying, “TJ followed up a strong cross country season with an even better indoors — his energy and focus was well channeled to the team from start to finish. He is an exceptional racer and topped his [indoor personal record] from last indoor season five times.” 

While the nationals meet marks the end of his second indoor season, he still has an outdoor season to try again, with a two week break before the teams first outdoor meet at Tufts’s Snowflake Invitational. He will have time to recover and come back better, especially considering the bigger track may help his racing strategy. The outdoor season added on top of the fact that he has two additional years means we aren’t even halfway through Carleo’s collegiate running career. Carleo says, “looking forward, my goal is to qualify for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships” and that he is “also excited to build up [his] mileage and training for the upcoming season.” His coach said, “He gained some valuable experience racing at NCAAs and is well prepared to take his successes of all his all-UAA and NCAA-qualifying [indoor] season to a fantastic outdoor track and field [season].” Hopefully we’ll see Carleo’s exceptional racing during the outdoor season and watch him punch another ticket for nationals!

Rebecca Suarez ’26 

For the first time in Suarez’s career, she earned a UAA Athlete of the Week Honor for the week of  Feb. 11. She earned this honor in the first match of the season against the then-ranked 10th Massachusetts Institute of Technology, winning her doubles match with Bhakti Parwani ’25 8-2 and winning her singles match in three sets 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. She then went on to win another match against the then-ranked 22nd University of Redlands with her doubles partner Parwani with a score of 8-4, though the team overall lost 7-2. They went on to win more doubles matches against the then-ranked 21st California Institute of Technology, 8-4, and repeated their win against the ranked first Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College 6-2.

Haley Nash ’24

For the second time in infielder/catcher Nash’s career, she has earned UAA Athlete of the Week Honor for the week of Feb. 25, her first coming from Apr. 26 during her first year. She earned this honor during the team's trip to California where she dominated the field offensively. Nash put up an impressive four RBIs and a .615 on base percentage from the trip. Although the team went 1-3 with a couple of tough losses on the trip, Nash stayed hot on offense, hitting two home runs and going 7 for 12 at the plate. Her second home run — a solo shot — put the Judges on top in their win against La Verne University. The Delmar, New York native, now has 21 total home runs, putting her at fifth all-time in Brandeis Softball program history. Head Coach Dani Bishop commented, “Haley has been one of our best offensive players the last four years and it is no surprise she received UAA hitter of the week to start off her senior year. I’m proud of her accomplishments and I am looking forward to watching her this year.”