WALTHAM, Mass. - In their second home meet, against the visiting Colby Mules, the Brandeis Judges would have tough overall meets with both teams faltering. The men would fall 108-176, while the women lost 100-191. So far this season, the men sit at 2-4 with the loss while the women's team moved to 2-6.
Despite the tough team performances, strong individual performances from both teams would provide a bright spot. For the men, sophomore Brendon Lu (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) led all men at the meet with three victories and tied for the most victories on either side of the meet. Lu would win the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:02.50, finishing just 0.46 seconds ahead. In the 200-yard breaststroke, Lu would dominate with a time of 2:16.55, over five seconds faster than second place, fellow Judge first-year Joshua Liu (New Hyde Park, N.Y./Great Neck South). Lu would complete his hat trick by winning the 200-yard individual medley in similarly dominant fashion, nearly a full three seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
Senior Tamir Zitelny (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset) continued his stellar, final season as a Judge with a strong two victory performance. While Zitelny won the 100-yard butterfly in convincing fashion with a time of 51.90 seconds, the big swim came in the 100-yard backstroke. With a time of 53.27 seconds, Zitelny set a personal season-best in the event, while also winning the event.
On the women's side, sophomore Olivia Stebbins (Willington, Conn./Edwin O. Smith) would provide half of the team's victories, winning both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke. In the 100-yard race, Stebbins would win a close battle for first by just over a second with a time of 1:11.80. The 200-yard breaststroke proved a bit different as Stebbins dominated to a nearly four-second victory with a mark of 2:38.70. Rounding out the wins for Brandeis was the 200-yard free relay team of juniors Uajda Musaku (Winthrop, Mass./Winthrop), Sofia Chevez (New York, N.Y./Beacon), and Audrey Kim (Livingston, N.J./Livingston) alongside first-year Ema Rennie (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Scioto) who won a narrow race against Colby by only 0.27 seconds. Rennie also won the 50-yard freestyle race with a time of 25.89 seconds.
Both Brandeis teams will be back in the pool for two meets next weekend, Saturday, Nov. 23 at Coast Guard, the number 18 ranked Men's team before returning to Linsey pool the next day to take on Tufts, the ninth-ranked Women's team and 12th-ranked Men's team.