"[The two meets yielded some] outstanding performances given that we have been training hard, and that it's only the beginning of the season," said Grant Mandsager '04.
The often extremely close Union meet on Saturday highlighted this year's strong freshman class.
"Union was a lot closer than we thought it would be, but we pulled through in the end," said co-captain Rob Winograd '02. "I think the freshmen, along with most of the team, were a bit nervous for the first meet, but we pulled through in the end."
Coming from behind, Elan Ghazel '05 was able to just touch out Union senior Kyle Schack in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:23.78.
Fellow freshmen Dan Gach and Chuck Clinton also had strong showings in the 200- yard backstroke and 50-yard freestyle, respectively.
"The standout swim was definitely Elan stepping up in the 200 fly and winning it in the last 50. No one thought he had it in him, and then he did it," said Winograd. "That big swim won us the meet."
However it was team co-captains Winograd and Chris Morton '02 who led the team to its eventual 124-117 victory.
Winograd won both the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke, and also anchored the victorious 400-yard medley relay with little competition from Union.
Morton led off the medley relay, and continued to dominate in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:02.08, just touching out teammate Mike Pohorylo '02 for a strong one-two finish for Amherst.
The closeness of the meet came as a surprise to some, as the team had been expecting a fairly easy start to the season, focusing instead on the Dec. 2 home meet against Middlebury College. Middlebury is traditionally one of the toughest meets of the year for Amherst.
Monday's meet against Wesleyan University was less intense, as the Cardinals were lacking in numbers with only 10 swimmers and four divers.
Winograd and Morton continued to lead the team, with Winograd winning both the 200-yard individual medley and the 500-yard freestyle, and Morton likewise winning both of his races, the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly.
Steve Shapiro '04 also had a strong meet, winning the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:13.92, crushing Wesleyan senior Rob Barlow's time of 10:32.97.
Most of the excitement came, however, from Amherst's 'B' medley relay when Ghazel led off thinking the relay was 400-yards as opposed to 200, forcing sophomore Dan Morash to dive over him, eliciting a gasp from the spectators and almost disqualifying the relay and team.
Aside from this relatively small mishap, the freshmen continued to make their presence known on this day, with Clinton cruising to a victory in the 100-yard backstroke by a full three seconds, as well as leading off the winning 'A' medley relay.
Colin Porter '05 continued the impressive string of freshmen performances with a surprising third place finish in the 200-yard individual medley.
At this weekend's meet against Middlebury College, the team hopes to set the tone for this year's NESCAC Championships by recording a plethora of gutsy performances.
Last year, the Amherst men beat the Panthers in the dual meet but later lost at the NESCAC Championships, with Middlebury's score of 1,318.5 edging Amherst into fourth place with 1,311.5 points. The Jeffs will look to avenge that loss on Saturday when they dive in against the Panthers.