WALTHAM, Mass. – In their first home dual meet of the 2023-24 season, the Brandeis University swimming and diving teams split with Vassar College. The Brandeis men won eight of 16 events but clinched a 154-129 victory, while the Brewer women took 11 of 16 for a 166.5-128.5 win.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: Men, 1-0; Women, 0-1.
• Vassar: Men, 1-1; Women, 2-0.

TOP PERFORMERS, MEN

• Senior All-American Sam Dienstag (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) started his dual meet season strong with wins in the 1,000-yard freestyle and 500 free. He posted times of 9:40.0 and 4:39.02 to win by 53 and 37 seconds, respectively. Both times rank second in Division III and in the UAA in the early season.
• Sophomore Benjamin Lee (Upton, Mass./Nipmuc Regional) also provided a pair of individual victories, taking the 200-yard freestyle in 1:47.46 and the 200 individual medley in 2:06.33, winning by margins of seven and three seconds, with the latter win coming against classmate Sam Bundy (Raleigh, N.C./Ardrey Kell).  
• The men's final multiple winner was first-year swimmer Riley Pasicaran (Kennewick, Wash./Hanford), who took the backstroke events, winning the 100 in 56.23 seconds, out-touching a Vassar swimmer by 0.12 seconds, and the 200 in 2:02.42, by about four seconds.
• Bundy was the final individual winner, claiming the 200 butterfly with a mark of 2:03.32, besting teammate AJ Martinez (North Miami Beach, Fla./NSU University School) by six seconds.
• The Judges closed the meet with a win in the 400 free relay, with the team of Dienstag, senior Ryan Schulken (Waxhaw, N.C./Marvin Ridge), sophomore Solomon Skelton-Harris (Golden Valley, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) and Lee posting a time of 3:21.04 to edge Vassar's quartet by 0.85 seconds.

TOP PERFORMERS, WOMEN

• First-year Dominique Goodman (Suwanee, Ga./Collins Hill) was a double-winner in the diving events, taking them with scores of 214.05 and 134.92
• Senior Monica Iizuka (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) took the 50 free by just six-hundredths of a second.
• Junior Chloe Gonzalez (Miami Beach, Fla./Miami Beach Senior) picked up an individual win in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:59.35 for a four-second win.
• Junior Anastasia Bekou (Limassol, Cyprus/Laniteio Lyceum) had a rare tie, touching the wall in the 100 backstroke in 1:01.10, even with her Vassar competitor.
• The Judges opened the meet with a win in the 200-medley relay thanks to the team of Bekou, sophomore Becca Kaplan (Fairfax, Va./Robinson Secondary School), Gonzalez and Iizuka. Their time of 1:28.22 was just two-hundredths of a second ahead of the Brewers.

UP NEXT

• The Judges return to action on Friday, November 3, with a tri-meet against Babson and WPI in Worcester.