"We have been unable to stay competitive in swimming, and believe that success could not be attained without a significant infusion of new resources."
The College released this comment in a press release almost a year ago to the day in order to justify the abrupt cancellation of the Dartmouth Aquatics programs.
This past weekend, the Dartmouth men's swimming team showed that it is not only alive and well, but a bold player among its Ivy League peers this season.
Perhaps it's poetic justice, but during its only home stand of this season, the men's swimming team entered uncharted positive territory, defeating both Brown and Navy on Saturday.
Double-dual meets, like the meet held on Saturday, have been scheduled at Dartmouth since the early 1980s.
However, this weekend marked the first time in school history that the Big Green men swept both opponents in an Eastern Intercollegiate Swim League meet.
It was also the first time since 1996 that the Dartmouth men can claim two EISL victories in a season.
According to swimmer Chris Mudd '06, Brown and Navy underestimated their Dartmouth competition.
"Last year, they both beat us pretty badly," Mudd said. "Brown was gunning for Navy and Navy was gunning for Brown -- they both just assumed that they'd beat us pretty badly."
When all was said and done, Dartmouth defeated Brown 124 to 109, and Navy 140 to 101.
"The highlight of the meet was how quickly we started out," Mudd said.
Mudd indicated that the Big Green victory in the 400 medley relay by Thomas Sanford '04, Matt Sueoka '04, Michael Hipps '05 and Ryan Goldhahn '04 in 3:28.78 set the pace for the rest of the team members to follow.
Peter Laidlaw '07 won the next event, the 1,000 freestyle, in 9:47.04, and Kemper Diehl '06 kept Dartmouth going strong with a winning time of 1:43.10 in the 200 freestyle.
Diehl's race "was exciting because he won by a couple tenths of a second, I think," Mudd said.
On Sunday, the swimmers capped off the weekend with a dominant victory against the University of Vermont (126-100).
Co-captain Scott Trubisz '04 said the men's swim team did not let down after its impressive Saturday.
"We had some solid swims," Trubisz said.
Trubisz said the team's first place performance in the 400-yard medley relay was particularly impressive.
According to Trubisz, the men's swim team is performing much better at this point in the year than at the same time last season.
"The seniors are maturing and starting to swim smarter races," Trubisz said.
Trubisz also noted that the team has some good raw talent and that he was particularly impressed by the team's performance during finishes -- the last 50 yards of each event.
This past weekend "made us realize that we can compete in the Ivies," Trubisz said. "We need to build on the momentum and set our expectations even higher."
Dartmouth (3-0) next faces the University of Hawaii in Hawaii on Dec. 12.
