WALTHAM, Mass. – The Brandeis University Swimming and Diving team opened its season tonight with its third annual Pentathlon meet against Roger Williams. This non-scoring event sees each swimmer completing a 100-yard swim in each of the four strokes followed by a 100 individual medley.
On the women's side, sophomore Natalya Wozab (Plantation, Fla. / Saint Thomas Aquinas) of the Judges took the top spot with a combined time of 5:30.17, more than two seconds faster that the Hawks' Hannah Nolte, last year's winner. Wozab's top events were the IM, which she won in 1:05.19, and the breaststroke, in which she placed third in 1:13.50.
The Judges also had a pair of rookies finish in third and fourth place. Annie Huang (Chapel Hill, N.C. / East Chapel Hill) was third with a cumulative time of 5:34.00, while Audrey Kim (Livingston, N.J. / Livingston) was fourth in 5:35.85. Huang was incredibly consistent throughout the evening, coming in fifth in four of the five events, including in the butterfly, where her time of 1:03.99 was just one-hundredth of a second behind Wozab for fourth place. Kim excelled in the backstroke, winning the event in 1:04.14, while taking second to Wozab in the IM with a time of 1:06.18.
On the men's side, it was an amazingly slim margin of victory for two-time defending champion Hunter Olson of Roger Williams, who edged Brandeis sophomore Tamir Zitelny (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset) by just two-hundredths of a second, 4:47.15 to 4:47.17. Zitelny won the 100 fly in 52.75 seconds, well ahead of Olson's 54.03. He also claimed the 100 free in 49.80 seconds to Olson's 50.52, which was fourth. Olson finished first overall in the backstroke leg, 55.59 to 56.11 and second for Zitelny. In the breaststroke, Olson in 10th place posted the largest margin of victory for either swimmer in the event, with a time of 1:09.80 to 1:10.76. In the last even, the IM, Olson's second-place finish in a time of 57.21 seconds was just enough to Zitelny's 57.75 to claim victory.
Other top performances for the Judges came from rookie Daniel Wohl (Chapel Hill, N.C. / East Chapel Hill) who finished fifth overall but won the IM with a time of 57.01 seconds, two-tenths faster than Olson, and sophomore Daniel Haid (Robbins, N.C. / International School of Lausanne) who placed fourth overall and third in the backstroke in 57.62 seconds.
The Judges are back in action on October 14th at Wheaton College for their first standard dual meet of the season