WORCESTER, Mass. -- Senior Max Fabian (Keene, N.H./Oak Meadow) and junior Brian Luk (Hong Kong/Northfield Mount Hermon) started off strong at WPI's Gompei Invitational combining for three top-4 finishes.
Fabian swam the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:45.42, finishing in second place, just 0.31 seconds behind the host's first place finisher. This was a two-man race from the beginning as Fabian touched over nine seconds before the next swimmer. Rookie Zach Diamond (Staten Island, N.Y. / Staten Island Academy) scored by finishing sixth in the race with a time of 4:58.06. Rookie Taku Harada (Henrico, Va. / Mills E. Godwin) came in right behind Diamond at 4:58.45, to score for the Judges in seventh place. Rookie Joey Barr (Deerfield, Ill. / Deerfield) rounded it out for Brandeis, touching 15th at 5:03.19.
Luk had a pair of fourth-place finishes, taking points in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly.
The junior touched at 21.57 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle race. Also scoring points in this race for Brandeis were sophomore Cam Braz (Monson, Mass. / Monson), and rookies Abu Batjargal (Waltham, Mass / Waltham Senior) and Evan Thom (Natick, Mass. / Natick). Braz finished in 22.75 seconds with the rookies coming in 28th and 29th with times of 23.25 and 23.28 seconds, respectively.
Luk's fourth place finish in the 100-yard butterfly came in just 53.32 seconds. This was exactly one second faster than sophomore Edan Zitelny (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset), the eighth place finisher. Sophomore Eb Weber (Murray, Ky./Murray) touched at 55.54 seconds, good for 16th place, while Danny Smyda (Acworth, Ga. / North Cobb) notched 27th place finishing in 57.62 seconds.
Zitelny added a pair of seventh-place finishes in the 200-yard IM and the 200-yard backstroke. In the 200 IM, he finished in 2:01.59, 5 swimmers and 2.39 seconds ahead of Harada. In the 200-yard backstroke, Zitelny touched seventh in 2:01.66, Harada 16th at 2:07.00, and rookie Andrew Baker (Wilmington, Mass / Austin Preparatory) 30th at 2:30.51.
The Judges had a strong showing in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Diamond, Fabian, Braz and Luk came in third in the race with a time of 7:11.63.
Rookie Adib Milani (Vienna, Va. / Marshall) had a strong performance in the breaststroke race finishing in 8th in the 100 with a time of 1:07.79. Finishing in 17th for Brandeis was rookie Rich Avrutsky (Needham, Mass / Needham) with a time of 1:06.30. Also scoring for the Judges was Batjargal. The rookie from Waltham finished in 20th at 1:08.09.
Brandeis had two teams in the 200-yard medley relay, finishing in 11th and 17th, and a team that touched 14th in the 400-yard relay. The first 200-medley relay team of Thom, Braz, Batjargal and Luk touched with a time of 1:29.85, with the second team coming in 17th at 1:38.90. Daniel Icaza (Panama, Republica de Panama / The International School of Panama), Smyda, Weber, and rookie Sam Scudere-Weiss (Belchertown, Mass. / Belchertown) scored for the Judges here. Weber, Milani, Smyda and Thom were the only scoring team in the 400-yard relay in Day One, coming in 14th at 3:51.38. The formidable team of Baker, Avrutsky, Diamond and Barr were disqualified for an early take-off.
As a team, the Judges finished with 622 points to finish in fifth place overall at the end of Day One.