After a string of close losses this season, the men’s swimming and diving team came out in full force on Saturday. The teams dominated Brown 171–118 in the dual meet, placing first in almost every event. It was the final home meet of the season for the team.
Going into the competition, head coach Tim Wise said he expected the meet to be very close.
“The story of our season has been that we’ve been the team that’s lost a lot close races,” he said. “And this Saturday the team won a lot of close races.”
This was the last meet before the Ivy League Championships, which will be held at Harvard starting on March 3. Wise said he hoped this meet will put the Yale team in a good position going into the conference meet.
“Winning is a skill, and we’re trying to acquire that skill. We put it together on Saturday; we’re hoping to carry that momentum into the Ivy League Conference,” Wise said.
The diving team started off the event with wins in their one meter and three meter events.
“I thought my divers dove better than expected,” diving coach Chris Bergère said. “All three boys had high scores individually in one of the events for the season at this meet.”
Bergère noted that the divers were very consistent and had a lot of confidence.
Eric Olson ’11, the only senior on the men’s team, has competed all four years and ended his career with a win in the one-meter dive and a second place finish in the three-meter event.
Veatch said that going 1–2 in the diving events before the start of the relay set up a good start to the match. The 200-meter medley relay team then dominated the Brown team, as Mike Dominski ’13, Sam Goldsmith ’11, Goksu Bicer ’12 and captain Kyle Veatch ’11 swam their season best with a time of 1:31.66, dropping over a second off their previous time.
“[The relay] set the tone for the rest of the meet,” Veatch said.
The men’s team followed the relay with wins in almost every event other than the breaststroke, with most races having Yale swimmers place first-and-second or first-and-third.
And though Brown captured first place in the 100-meter breaststroke, Bulldogs placed 2-3-4.
“It felt great to see all my teammates winning the close races and for us to finally get another win,” Dominski said. “After we won the [400-meter freestyle] relay I was thinking about the celebratory ‘Wenzel’ that I had waiting for me after the race.”
For the seniors on the men’s team, it was especially gratifying to end this season with a win.
“It’s been a tough year for us record-wise,” Matt Lee ’11 said. “As seniors, we definitely wanted to end with a win.”
The dual meet had a larger audience than usual as many seniors had family members in the stands. Lee’s mother came from Michigan to watch his final home meet and his sister, who lives in New York, also came out to support his final home meet.
Wise said the large turnout could also be attributed to the annual alumni weekend for swimming that was held.
It was emotional not only because it was the last meet for seniors, Wise added, but also because it was a nice way for them to end their careers with a win, giving the Class of 2011 a 22–21 overall record.
“If they hadn’t won, it would probably be the first time a class had a four-year overall losing record,” he said.
There are eight seniors on the men’s swimming team.