The first splash of the season was a big one for the men's and women's swimming and diving teams. Over the weekend, the Bears competed at the Big Al Open, hosted by Princeton. The men's squad claimed third place overall, and the women's squad finished seventh.
On the men's side, Brown tallied a total of 554 points, behind first-place finisher Penn State, which had a total of 1,065, and second-place finisher Princeton, who had a total of 792.5.
"From top to bottom, we swam incredibly well as a team," said Kevin Hug '08. "This is by far the strongest team we have had in my four years at Brown, which gets me very excited for the rest of the season."
On Friday, Hug, Brian Kelly '08, Tucker Wetmore '10 and Daniel Ricketts '09 gave Brown a second-place finish in the meet's opening event, the 400 meter freestyle relay, with a time of 1:22.68. Later that day, Hug, Conor Carlucci '11, Ricketts and Kelly captured third place in the 400 meter medley relay with a time of 3:22.98.
The Bears continued their strong relay performances the next day, starting with the 200 meter medley relay. Zack Levko '10, Carlucci, Richard Alexander '09 and Trent Huxley '10 took fifth place in 1:34.93, while the Bears' second team of Ryunosuke Kikuchi '11, Grant Garcia '08, JD Pinto '10 and Wetmore took sixth place in 1:35.21.
The Bears closed the day with the 800 meter freestyle relay, where Ricketts, Kelly, Alexander and Hug earned a time of 6:50.62 for third place, and their second team of Kikuchi, Rob Glenn '08, Pinto and Peter Volosin '08 finished sixth in 6:57.71.
On Sunday, Brown took another second-place finish in the final event of the competition, the 400 freestyle relay, as Ricketts, Kelly, Hug and Wetmore clocked in at 3:01.95.
"I think our relays were the most impressive swims of the meet," Hug said. "Our 400 freestyle relay (Ricketts, Kelly, Hug, Wetmore) and 400 medley relay (Hug, Carlucci, Ricketts, Kelly) put up great times for this point in the season, and I think we have a very good chance at breaking school records in both events by the end of the season."
The Bears earned a handful of top-10 finishes in the individual events as well. Kelly and Huxley finished fourth and 10th in the 50 free with respective times of 20.72 and 21.18. In the 1,650 free, Volosin finished in 15:52.88, good for ninth place, and he also placed tenth in the 500 free with a time of 4:34.20.
Kelly earned his second individual top-10 finish during the competition when he placed third in the 100 free with a time of 45.50 seconds.
"I should be pretty happy with the way I swam, since I have never been this fast this early in the season before," Kelly said. "My times, along with the rest of our team's times, are a good amount faster than they were last year. But I am still hoping to drop some time before (the) Eastern Championships."
Kikuchi also claimed a pair of top-10 performances, placing sixth in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:00.14 and fourth in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:50.16. He was joined in the 200 back by Hug, who claimed fifth place in 1:50.69.
Hug also had a strong finish in the 100 meter backstroke, where he clocked in at 51.01 for fourth place. In the same event, Ricketts took seventh place with a time of 52.54.
"I am quite happy with my swims," Hug said. "I am swimming as fast now as I did fully rested at the end of last season, which means that I am in a good position to swim very fast at the end of this season."
Carlucci finished seventh in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:09.88. He also had a strong performance in the 100 breast, earning fifth place in 58.01, while Garcia earned ninth place in 59.50.
"I am very proud of our freshmen, specifically Connor Carlucci and Ryan Kikuchi," Hug said. "It is a big help to have freshmen that can contribute points to the team so quickly."
Kelly agreed, saying, "I think the freshman class deserves a lot of attention because they managed to get three or four - possibly more - finals swims, and they managed to score a lot of points. Ryan Kikuchi and Connor Carlucci both are both great additions to the team this year."
In the diving events, C.J. Kambe '10 scored 276.05 in the one-meter dive for fourth place, and Jonathan Speed '11 scored 276.40 on the three-meter for seventh place.
On the women's side, Penn State earned a team total of 1,057 points for the victory, while Princeton tallied 639 for second place and Washington State University tallied 495 for third. The University of Pittsburgh, Rutgers University and Columbia took fourth, fifth, and sixth place respectively, and Brown was not far behind in seventh place with a total of 173 points.
"I feel that it was a strong performance for where we are in the season," said Stephanie Pollard '11. "As a whole, our team performed very well. There are a few things we need to work on, but overall our performance was strong."
The Bears' top finishes of the competition were nabbed by the first-years. In the 200 free, Pollard clocked in at 1:52.15, good for eighth place.
"Given that the Big Al Open was my first large college meet, I thought I did well, and it gave me a good indication of the level of competition I am up against," Pollard said.
Meanwhile, classmate Candice Sisouvanvieng-Kim '11 finished eighth in the 50 free with a time of 24.25. "I feel like the training I've been doing has really paid off," she said.
The Bears earned another eighth-place finish when Sage Erskine '11, Ally Wyatt '08, Natascha Mangan '11 and Sisouvanvieng-Kim recorded a time of 3:55.94 in the 400 medley relay.
Erskine also claimed two tenth-place finishes, swimming the 100 back in 57.66 and the 200 back in 2:04.23.
In the 800 free relay, the team of Pollard, Ainsley McFadgen '09, Kelley Wisinger '11 and Wyatt finished fifth with a time of 7:40.79.
Though the Bears had some success in the relays, Sisouvanvieng-Kim said that they were not entirely satisfied with their results. "We're going to work a lot on relay exchanges," she said. "We need to work on transitioning more smoothly."
Both squads will compete next in the Florida Atlantic University Invitational, which will be held in Boca Raton on Jan. 5. Brown will take advantage of the time off to put in some extra training time.
"We are now taking a break from competition until after finals," Hug said."We are going to use these next few weeks as an opportunity to get in some solid training that should give us a good base as we head into the heart of our in-conference dual meet season in January and February."
