CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, January 19. SOPHMORES Rastislav Racz and Luke Cummings each picked up a trio of victories to help MIT's men's swimming and diving team overcome visiting Colby College, 176-94, in the Zesiger Pool. The No. 15 Engineers' (4-0) perfect dual meet record remained intact thanks to the triumph, while the Mules (2-3) fell to a nationally-ranked opponent for the third time this season.
Racz and Cummings were each part of MIT's win in the meet's opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, along with Jeff Zhou and Laurent Charpentier. The quartet clocked in at 1:35.94 to earn maximum points, while second-place was claimed by Tech's "B" relay team of Peter Wellings, Deke Hu, Toomas Sepp and Kalvin Kao.
Racz picked up his other two victories in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke events. In the 100, the Bratislava, Slovakia native touched the wall at 59.58 to beat out the competition, while in the 200, he clocked in at 2:14.17, just ahead of runner-up and teammate John Walk, who finished with a time of 2:19.48.
Cummings was part of 1-2 finishes for Tech in both the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events. His finishing time of 22.04 in the 50-yard freestyle was just fast enough to edge out teammate Charpentier (22.11), while his 48.56 in the 100-yard freestyle was once again a shade faster than his fellow Engineer, this time being Wellings (48.84).
Freshman Michael Dobson earned himself a pair of individual victories, claiming maximum points in both the 500-yard and 1000-yard freestyle events. The rookie won the 500 with a time of 4:51.40 and the 1000 by touching the wall at 9:56.78. He was joined in the 1000-yard event by second-place finisher and fellow freshman Jack Hill, who claimed the runner-up spot with a time of 10:02.03.
The Cardinal and Gray impressively grabbed the top three spots in two separate events – the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard butterfly. In the backstroke, Trace Sauter (56.34), Sepp (58.12), and Ted Tomlinson (1:01.49) did the honors, while in the butterfly, Charpentier (53.50), Sepp (53.70) and George Rossick (55.60) gave MIT the sweep.
Hu finished the 200-yard butterfly in 2:02.87 to win the event, while Rossick claimed second with a time of 2:10.02.
Freshman Carson Darling swept the diving events, winning both the one-meter (216.65 points) and three-meter (225.70 points) portions.
Though it was treated as an exhibition after the Engineers had already secured the victory, Tech put forth the top four times in the 200-yard individual medley with Kao, Sepp, Hu and Eric Roselli.
MIT's 20th-ranked women's swimming and diving team rode freshman freestyle swimmer Amy Jacobi to victory on Saturday afternoon, as the Engineers downed visiting Colby College, 170-124, in the Zesiger Pool. The rookie from Cranbury, N.J., led all swimmers with four victories, including three in individual freestyle events.
MIT improved its dual meet record to 4-2 with the win, while Colby, ranked No. 22 in the nation, fell to 2-3 with its third loss of the season against a nationally-ranked opponent.
Jacobi led a 1-2-3 finish in the 50-yard freestyle, clocking in at 24.64, just ahead of teammates Sarah King (25.93) and Ashley Pinchinat (26.46). She also earned maximum points in the 100-yard (54.42) and 500-yard (5:10.50) freestyle events, before leading off the winning 200-yard freestyle relay team along with King, Jackee Nowicke and Pinchinat (1:43.13).
The Engineers also grabbed the top two spots in the 1000-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly, picking up a significant amount of points in the process. In the 1000-yard freestyle, junior Nicole O'Keeffe easily won the event with a time of 10:55.76, while teammate Rachel Price came in second by touching the wall at 11:21.55. Junior Jen Chao earned top billing in the 100-yard butterfly, clocking in first with a time of 1:01.79, while fellow junior Kristen Felch garnered runner-up honors by finishing at 1:02.62.
Senior Sasha Brophy won the 200-yard freestyle (1:57.37) and Felch took the top spot in the 200-yard butterfly (2:17.27) to round out Tech's winners in the swimming events.
Senior diver Doria Holbrook was impressive yet again, as the 2005 and 2007 three-meter diving National Champion swept both the one-meter (294.80 points) and three-meter (297.70 points) events.
Special thanks to MIT for contributing this report.