In their first home meet of the year, the men's and women's swimming and diving teams lost close matches to Dartmouth, 151-149 and 156-144, respectively, the weekend of Nov. 20.
Men's and women's Head Coach Peter Brown said he had higher hopes for both teams.
"I was disappointed," he said. "Individually, we had good performances, but as a team we didn't do well. It was a bit of a wake-up call."
On the men's side, tri-captain Conor Carlucci '11 led the team, winning both the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke and the 100 butterfly. In the 100 breaststroke, teammate Michael McVicker '13 came in second, and in the 100 butterfly, Thomas Glenn '14 trailed only a second behind Carlucci.
The only other race in which the men took the top two spots was the 100 freestyle. James Hunter '12 came in first with a time of 52.63 seconds, with teammate Timothy Juhn '12 following less than a second later. Hunter also won the 200 freestyle.
The last race, the 400 freestyle relay, decided the winner. It was a prime example of what Brown said was the team's failure to work well together, since the team's showing allowed the Big Green to take first and third in the event and win the meet by two points.
"It's been a while since we've lost to them," said Brown. "We're a much better team than what we showed — we didn't show up. Dartmouth showed up, and that's why they won."
The women took the top three spots in three events — the 100 and 200 breaststroke and the 50 freestyle. Though the women never allowed Dartmouth to win all top three spots, the Big Green came in first in 10 of the 17 events and performed well in diving. Dartmouth diver Katy Feng broke the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth pool records in both the one-meter and three-meter diving events.
"The team that I had been seeing at other meets was not the team I saw this past time," Brown said. "But the silver lining is, as they say, that sometimes when you win, you're never as good as you think you are, and when you lose, you're never as bad as you think you are."
The next meet for both teams will be at the Princeton Invitational, starting Friday. Brown said he hopes both teams will be "more together" at the invitational.
"When we are together, we're going to be pretty darn good," he said.
