WORCESTER, Mass. – The Brandeis men's swimming and diving team had one of its best statistical performances of the season at WPI's Gompei Invitational on Dec. 5-7. The Judges finished with 1460 points to finish in fourth place overall.
DAY TWO RECAP
Senior Max Fabian (Keene, N.H./Oak Meadow) continued his dominance in the mile, winning the event and breaking his own facility record in the process.
Fabian swam the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:29.20, a 4.5-second margin of victory over the runner-up from host WPI. Fabian bested his first-place mile time from last year's Gompei Invitational by over three seconds. Fabian had three other top-11 performances on the second day, placing third in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:14.62 and finishing 11th in the 200 butterfly. His 400 IM time was nine seconds better than last year's. Fabian also finished 11th in the 200-yard freestyle at 2:06.07.
Rookie Zach Diamond (Staten Island, N.Y. / Staten Island Academy) scored in three individual races for the Judges on Day Two. Diamond's best finish was third in the 1650-yard freestyle at 16:37.55. He continued his strong day with a fifth place finish in the 400-yard IM (4:20.85) and by touching sixth in the 200 butterfly (2:04.52).
Sophomore Edan Zitelny (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset) added a pair of top-10 finishes. He came in fourth in the 200 butterfly, with a time of 2:02.02. He also came in seventh in the 100-yard backstroke with a mark of 55.32 seconds, improving last year's time by over three seconds.
Junior Brian Luk (Hong Kong/Northfield Mount Hermon) had two top-15 finishes on Day Two, coming in fourth in the 100 freestyle (47.08 seconds), and in 15th in the 200 free with a time of 1:49.15.
Rookie Adib Milani (Vienna, Va. / Marshall) had a strong showing in the breaststroke races finishing in 7th in the 200 with a time of 2:17.22 and coming in 10th (29.13) in the 50-yard race.
Also scoring for the Judges were sophomore Eb Weber (Murray, Ky./Murray), and rookies Joey Barr (Deerfield, Ill. / Deerfield), Cam Braz (Monson, Mass. / Monson) and Sam Zucker (Omaha, Neb. / Anderson). Weber placed in the backstroke event, coming in ninth in the 50 (26.44 seconds). Barr took 17:37.19 in the 1650 freestyle, which was good for seventh overall. Braz scored by placing 10th in the 200 freestyle (1:49.49). Zucker finished 7th in the three meter diving event scoring 287.05 points, just 2.75 points behind the sixth place winner.
Brandeis finished the 200 medley relay in fifth place and touched sixth in the 400 free relay. The 200 medley relay team of Zitelny, Milani, Luk and Braz touched with a time of 1:39.38, while the 400 free relay of Braz, rookie Abu Batjargal (Waltham, Mass / Waltham Senior), Fabian and Luk finished in 3:15.48. Both of these times were better than last year's respective times at the Gompei Invitational.
The Judges return to action next semester at home against Colby on Jan. 10.