This past Homecoming weekend, the Dartmouth men's swim team went up to Sherbrooke, Canada for the annual Can-Am Invitational.
With 758 points, the Big Green seamen outdistanced the University of Montreal, McGill University and the University of Laval, as well as four other Canadian teams.
"Our depth kept us in the meet and our relays won it for us," head coach Jim Wilson proclaimed.
"Dartmouth's mission in Sherbrooke was simple: To dominate the Canadian teams, represent Dartmouth to its fullest being Homecoming weekend and prove to ourselves the talent we have this year," captain Paul Schned '03 said.
Last weekend's meet marked an exciting beginning to the men's swimming season and a drastic improvement from last year's team.
This year's team returns three seniors: co-captains Schned and Louis Fidel and powerhouse Louis Trotman. In addition, the junior class returns Tom Sanford, Grant Chang, Matthew Derr, Scott Trubisz and Ryan Goldhahn.
To round out the team, the '05s and '06s have the two strongest swimming classes Wilson has seen in his nine years here.
Highlights from the meet included freshman Yale Fillingham's win in the grueling 1500-meter freestyle and his come-from-behind second-place finish in the 200-freestyle.
In addition, Sanford had three impressive breaststroke races -- coming in fifth in the 50-breaststroke, fifth in the 100-breaststroke and fourth in the 200-breaststroke.
Schned scored the most points of anyone on the team by finishing in the top-10 in all five of his individual races. Other highlights included an amazing 100-free by Kemper Deihl '06 and classmate John Reidy's second-place finish in a fast 200 butterfly.
The '05 class dominated the backstrokes with Sean Robinson, Michael Hipps and Steve Brown-Klinger earning fifth, sixth and seventh place finishes in the 100- backstroke.
"Sherbrooke was a very good meet for us as a team," Fidel said afterwards.
"The freshmen got to have their first meet as college athletes, and the upperclassmen got to be pleasantly surprised by their performances. It always feels good to come away with a victory, and it's nice to get the season off to such a positive start," he said.
The men begin Ivy League competition against Brown (and the United States Naval Academy) on Nov. 23 in Annapolis. Their first home meet is Nov. 24 against the University of Vermont.
