NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The Brandeis University swimming and diving teams ended up their 2017-18 season at the ECAC Championships at Rutgers University. One of three Division II programs competing against Division I and II opponents, the Brandeis men finished in 13th place with 91 points, while the women finished in 17th place with 62 points.
The Judges had two individuals and two relays compete in the final session on Day 3 of the meet. Senior Zach Diamond (Staten Island, N.Y./Staten Island Academy) and rookie Richard Selznick (Las Vegas, Nev./Palos Verde) competed in the 1,650 freestyle. Selznick lowered his personal best and the second all-time best performance in the event with a time of 16:19.03, which was good for 16th place. Diamond finished in 21st place in 17:05.52.
In relay action, the Judges had finalists in the 400 freestyle relays. The men just missed their school record set at UAAs by 0.13 seconds with a time of 3:08.99 swum by sophomore Tamir Zitelny (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset) and rookies Chase Chen (Villanova, Penn. / The Hill School), Marcelo Ohno-Machado (San Diego, Calif. / Torrey Pines) and Daniel Wohl (Chapel Hill, N.C./ Chapel Hill East). On the women's side, the Judges swam to 12th place with a time of 3:47.73 turned in by the quartet of senior Amy Sheinhait (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) and first-years Uajda Musaku (Winthrop, Mass./Winthrop), Audrey Kim (Livingston, N.J./Livingston), and Emily McGovern (Chatham, N.J./Chatham).
In the day's preliminaries, Zitelny posted the ninth-fastest time in the 200-yard backstroke with a mark of 1:53.16, but did not compete in the finals. The Judges had a handful of top-25 performances in the preliminaries as well. McGovern was the closest to making the final session in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:30.09, just over half a second out of making it to the evening session in 17th place.
One school record was tied in the prelim session, with senior Richard Avrutsky (Needham, Mass./Needham) swam 27.17 seconds in the opening lap of the 200-yard breaststroke to match a mark set in 2009 by Marc Eder '09
Rookie Joe Beletti-Naccarato (Delmar, N.Y. / Bethlehem Central) had a 20th-place finish in the 100 back, swimming 1:58.37, about two seconds out of the top 16. Wohl also finished in 20th place, coming about half a second out of the finals in the 100 free with a time of 46.78, the second-fastest time in school history.
Also reaching the top 25 was Audrey Kim for the women in the 200 back with a time of 2:15.09 and sophomore Matthew Arcemont (Santa Ana, Calif. / Mater Dei), who placed 23rd in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:58.20, while rookie Benjamin Francis (Brooklyn, N.Y. / Brooklyn Friends School) was 25th in the event with a time of 2:01.61.