After kicking off the new year on Jan. 4 with a 48-point trouncing of Colby College, the Jeffs prepared to face the Ephs on Jan. 10, hoping to hold onto Amherst's title as Little Three champions for the second year in a row.
"The win over Colby helped our confidence as a team because it showed us that we could swim well while being tired from intense training," said co-captain Mike Pohorylo '04. "After the Colby meet, we knew we would be able to swim fast enough to beat Williams after a couple days of rest."
After a surprise victory by the women's team, the men knew it was up to them to give Amherst its first ever dual men's and women's victory over Williams. The competition was close, but the men's team came out on top by a mere three points, winning 123-120 and beating the Ephs for the second consecutive year.
"The team went into the Williams meet feeling very little pressure," said senior co-captain Dan Morash. "Unlike last season when we were favored to beat Williams, very few people outside of Amherst thought we had a chance this year. With almost no pressure on us, we went out and swam one of the best meets in the program's history."
The meet began with the 400-yard medley relay. Amherst's team of Rick Estacio '06, Pohorylo, Bryan Woo '06 and Morash took first place by a whopping 10 seconds. Their time of 3:27.73, fourth-fastest in the nation, shattered the Amherst pool record by five seconds and gave the relay team a B-cut for the NCAA tournament.
Following the relay came the 1000-yard freestyle race. Though an Eph took first, Adam Lewkowitz '06 and Steve Shapiro '04 finished second and third, respectively. In a close race for the 200-yard freestyle, Ethan Treat '07 took third with a time of 1:45.94 a mere seven-tenths of a second off the first-place Williams swimmer. Amherst swimmers returned the favor in the next event, however as Woo and Chuck Clinton '05 dominated Williams' top freestylers with first- and second-place finishes in the 50-yard freestyle.
One of Williams' toughest competitors is 2002-03 NESCAC Swimmer of the Year, Will Cunningham. His first match-up came against Pohorylo in the 200-yard individual medley. Continuing the momentum set in the previous races, Pohorylo not only gave Cunningham his first-ever NESCAC loss, but also broke the pool record in the 200-yard individual medley by three seconds, earning both an NCAA B-cut and the eighth fastest time nationally in Div. III this season.
Despite fourth- and fifth-place finishes in the one-meter diving competition by novices Chris Hunter '05 and Jay Buchman '07, Amherst gathered its strength and won points.
First-year Ethan Treat finished first in the 200-yard butterfly with a B-cut time of 1:54.58.Teammate Nick Federico '05 finished third to earn points for the Jeffs as well. The dominating freestyle duo of Woo and Clinton followed and came up with first- and second-place finishes in the 100-yard free.
Williams' Cunningham stepped up to the blocks for a second time, this time to face Estacio in the 200-yard backstroke. After 100 yards of close racing, Estacio took off, leaving the stunned Eph three seconds behind. In addition to his first-place finish, Estacio broke his second pool record of the day, making an NCAA A-cut and earning himself the seventh-fastest Div. III time in the nation.
"I knew that in order to beat Williams, we had to beat their best," said Pohorylo. "Personally, I did not want to leave the pool that day wishing that I had given more to help us win. Chuck Clinton and Bryan Woo took care of their top freestylers, while Rick Estacio and I handled last year's NESCAC Swimmer of the Year, Will Cunningham, handing him his first two dual-meet losses of his career."
Unfortunately, the Jeffs fell behind once more in the three-meter diving event. Amherst, however, would not be held back. The Jeffs finished off the individual competition with first- and second-place finishes in the 200-yard breaststroke by Pohorylo and John Ancona '07, respectively, as Pohorylo qualified for an NCAA B-cut.
In the end, the meet came down to the final event: the 400-yard freestyle relay. All the Jeffs needed to win the meet were second- and third-place finishes. With this in mind, coach Nick Nichols split up Amherst's top relay team, giving the Jeffs two solid relay teams to compete for the win. Though Williams took first, they did not have enough talent on their other two relays to stop Amherst from coming out on top. Not far behind the Ephs' first-place team came Amherst's second-place relay of Adam Kaplan '07, Treat, Grant Mandsager '04 and Estacio. Touching in soon after was Amherst's third-place relay of Ed Hagerty '07E, Morash, Dan Savage '06 and Clinton. Swimmers and fans burst into cheers as the Amherst's men's swimming team became Little Three champions for the second year in a row, something which hasn't happened since 1943. At the end of the day, the Jeffs dropped only four swimming events, improving their record to 5-0.
"The win against Williams has proven that we are the best team in the NESCAC and it has given us confidence that we didn't have before the meet," said Pohorylo. "With the post-season meets only a couple weeks away we are in a good position to win our first conference championship since 1967."
After Williams and their rigorous training trip in Puerto Rico, the team made a second road trip, this time to Hamilton College, where the underclassmen showed their talent and dominated their competition. First-year Ancona took first in both the 50- and 100-yard breaststroke, while classmate Treat won the 400-yard individual medley. The class of 2006 also had a strong showing. Woo and Estacio dominated their strokes with two first-place finishes apiece in the 50- and 100-yard butterfly and backstroke, respectively. Lewkowitz also took first in the 500-yard and 1000-yard freestyle events.
"The performances by our underclassmen at the Hamilton meet proved that Amherst swimming will be well off for the next few years," said Morash."Rick [Estacio], Bryan [Woo] and Ethan [Treat] have emerged as three of the best swimmers in all of Division III. We are extremely lucky that we have them on our side."
"Personally, I was most impressed by the performance of John Ancona this past weekend who handed me my first regular season loss in a breaststroke event. It always hurts to lose but if it's going to happen I can't think of anyone else I want to beat me," said Pohorylo, who finished second to his teammate in the 50-yard breaststroke at Hamilton
These strong performances by underclassmen led the Jeffs to a 166-122 victory over the Continentals, and will hopefully give them an extra edge over their competition for the remainder of the season.
"Beating Hamilton proved to be almost as important to our confidence as the Williams meet was," said Morash.
"We had returned from an intense training trip in Puerto Rico only three days before the meet and we were physically drained. However, we endured the long bus ride to upstate New York and beat Hamilton easily."
Luckily, the Jeffs will not travel far this weekend. Amherst faces M.I.T this Saturday at 1 p.m. and Hartwick College on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Pratt Pool.