MEDFORD, MA (November 19, 2023) – A lot of familiar faces and some new ones led the 17
th-ranked Tufts University men's swimming & diving team to a 138-104 victory against Brandeis University in their season-opener at Hamilton Pool.
The Jumbos had the best marks in all 16 events at the meet. Leading the way was
Peter LaBarge, a fifth-year returnee, junior
Eric Lundgren and freshman
Rafae Shafi, who each had top marks in two individual events.
Tufts started the day with a strong line-of returnees Lundgren, junior
Emmett Adams, sophomore
Armaan Sikka and LaBarge winning the 200 medley relay in a 1:33.60 time.
Shafi, in his collegiate debut, then won the first individual event with a 9:54.77 finish in the 1000 freestyle. He would later swim a 4:51.15 that was the fastest time for the 500 as he had a strong double in the distance freestyles.
Lundgren soon added his first win in the 100 backstroke at 51.29 seconds, followed by classmate
Ethan Schreier in 53.30 seconds. In the 200 backstroke Lundgren topped the field again with a 1:54.39 time. Schreier added to his day with the best time in the 100 butterfly of 50.58 seconds.
LaBarge took the 50 freestyle in 20.91 seconds, and the 100 free in 46.80. Sophomore
Alex Gu in the 50 (21.58) and junior
Soeren Euvrard in the 100 (47.58) were the second-place finishers.
Sikka added an early victory in the 200 freestyle with a 1:45.40 mark. Adams' time of 58.51 seconds in the 100 breaststroke was first. The runner-up in the event was senior
Willie Xu (59.06), who would later swim the fastest mark of 2:09.78 in the 200 breaststroke.
Senior
Tim Chou started his season with a 1:58.38 victory in the 200 butterfly, where he was trailed closely by freshman
Josh Schultz. Junior Charie Duffy's 1:59.71 was the fastest 200 individual medley of the day.
Perhaps the best overall performance of the meet came from freshman
Jay Wilkinson in one-meter diving which was held Friday at Brandeis. His 325.35 score was the fourth-best ever at Tufts for a six-dive program. Sophomore
Jeremy Lawrence had the top score of 253.28 in the three-meter event. Freshman
Elias Brandt was the runner-up in both one-meter (270.97) and three-meter (252.22).
The Jumbos closed out the meet with freshman
Will Kaminski, Schreier, freshman
Jan Springer and LaBarge posting a 1:26.70 in the 200 freestyle relay for the fastest time.
The top Brandeis finish was a second by Benjamin Lee in the 200 freestyle (1:45.74). His 1:59.76 in the 200 IM was also close to Duffy's.
Tufts will be in action against December 1-3 at the MIT Invitational.
--JUMBOS--
