In a three-day meet of 10,454 points, it is almost unfathomable to think that second place was decided by just two points, 1308 to 1306. As Christian Witzke '09 said, "It was great to come out in second in a meet where every single team member's contributions mattered." If any Amherst swimmer finished a place lower, Tufts would have taken home the second-place plaque. "It came down to every last one of us giving it all we had," said Adam Kaplan '07.
Motivated by cheers like, "Balls, Balls, Balls!" and "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts Can't Lose," the Amherst men came home satisfied with their performance and will not have to wait another year to prove that they are still a dominant force in NESCAC competition. "Was I happy with the meet? Absolutely," exclaimed Coach Nick Nichols. "Across the board for us it was a great meet." Depth was key to the Jeffs' success.
The men opened Friday night with fourth- and eighth-place squads in the 200-yard freestyle relay, immediately putting the Jeffs in a competitive position. Co-captain Jon Ancona '07 snagged sixth in the 50-yard breaststroke, followed by Prill in ninth. While Amherst did not place in the top eight of the 50-yard butterfly, Witzke came back in the 500-yard freestyle to touch out two strong opponents for second place. Mike Waskom '09 claimed fifth in the 100-yard backstroke and Daryl Weimer '10 took eighth. A fierce co-captain Ethan Treat '07, who has fought through injury all season and was forced to spend a month out of the water, Maslan and Prill earned impressive third, sixth and ninth place finishes in the 200-yard IM respectively, catapulting Amherst back up in the standings. Tad Homchick '10 took sixth in the competitive 50-yard freestyle and Connor Boyd '08 followed to place a close second in the one-meter diving event. In the final event of the evening, the powerful squad of Waskom, Ancona, Witzke and Treat placed third in the 400-yard medley relay, helping to push Amherst past third-place Tufts and Middlebury by 25 points and leaving the team hoping they could maintain the slight lead over its closest competitors for two more days.
Amherst faltered a bit in the 200-yard medley relay, coming out towards the bottom of a close four-way battle for third, with each team finishing within a second of each other. The 1,000-yard freestyle was also a tough event for Amherst with no swimmer placing better than 15th. But Treat '07 turned the slow start of the night around with an impressive Nationals-qualifying performance in the 400 IM, good for second, with Maslan coming in fourth. Amherst placed no swimmer in the top-eight of the 100-yard butterfly, but had three swimmers in the Consolation Final and two more in the Preconsolation Final. Wtizke swam a great race for third in the extremely competitive 200-yard freestyle as the lone Jeff to crack the top 16. Ancona swam a great race for second in the 100-yard breaststroke, followed in seventh by Prill in top form. Waskom took fifth in the 100-yard backstroke, the next event of the evening. In the defining 800-yard freestyle relay, Treat, Maslan, Waskom and Witzke finished just 0.7 seconds behind Tufts for third as Middlebury's relay disqualified, sacrificing their team 50 points the Panthers would otherwise have earned. The Jeffs breathed another sigh of relief when they learned they would hold onto their lead over Tufts by a hair for another night.
Witzke opened the final night with a bang, finishing with a convincing third place in a 1,650-yard freestyle field packed with seniors at the top. The 200-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle were difficult for the Jeffs as no swimmer finished in the top eight in either event, effectively sending Amherst into an 80-point hole behind Tufts. However, the 200-yard breaststroke helped the Jeffs chip away at Tufts' lead, with Ancona taking second and James Stanton '08 swimming the race of his life, a "strong, incredibly impressive" performance according to Nichols, for fifth place. The 200-yard butterfly, in which Treat, C.J. Holmes '09, Hunter Mims '10 and Alek Vey '07 finished fifth, eighth, 10th and 16th respectively, further helped Amherst close Tufts' leading margin. Boyd followed in third in the three-meter diving event, with Adam Bookman '08 coming in ninth, again, helping the Jeffs inch towards the goal of second place that might as well be considered a win.
It all came down to the final 400-yard freestyle relay. With Amherst up by six, the Jeffs could not afford to lose much ground. The Tufts B-relay finished one place ahead of Amherst's B-relay, bringing the Jumbos two points closer to matching the Jeffs. In the final heat of the Championships weekend, the Jeffs could only afford to finish one place behind Tufts to maintain the lead. Williams, Middlebury and Tufts all had a considerable lead over the Jeffs as the anchor Witzke dove off the board in the final relay. Witzke swam phenomenally, closing in on Tufts. But so did Connecticut College's anchor, who brought the Camels into contention for third. In the final second of the race, Conn.'s Grant Moryan's arm extended .13 seconds ahead of Tufts's Andrew Shields, giving Conn. third, leaving Tufts fourth and Amherst fifth, only .05 seconds behind Tufts. But fifth was good enough for Amherst to hold onto the lead to claim second by just two points. If Conn.'s swimmer ended up sandwiched between the Jeffs and Jumbos, Tufts would have won. "It was a pretty incredible conclusion," explained Nichols. Many swimmers had described the meet as the most exciting they have ever attended and particularly thrilling and uncanny for a Championship meet. The Jeffs drove home to Amherst Sunday night proud to have proven that they are still a NESCAC force, even if others did not expect it.
"We had a lot of tough breaks this year," Ancona reflected. "Going into the season, people really didn't have such high expectations, but we had this great building period towards the end of the season."
"The way we were able to rally together is definitely something special-something I'll never forget," said Kaplan of the final meet of his Amherst swimming career. As Ancona explained, "A meet like that you really can't distill down to a sound bite. It was just too good for words."