The Lafayette swim and dive team finished their fall schedule with a solid showing at the ECAC swim championships last weekend in East Meadow, NY, as the women placed 11th out of 17 teams and the men placed fifth out of 11. The team now has the rest of December off before they resume competition in the new year, and will use the ECAC meet as fuel to prepare for the upcoming winter season.

“It was exciting to see people drop even more time in just three weeks,” said freshman Justin Lloyd, who had another strong performance over the three-day event. “There is a lot of positive energy right now and that will help motivate us for the upcoming hard training.”

Lloyd recorded a top-three finish for the second time in two weeks as he paired with junior Bryce Currie, senior James Doherty, and freshman Kyle Goodwill for the third-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Lloyd attributes his preparation and consistency as keys to his success so far, as he tallied the ninth-most points in the tournament with 95.

“I just make sure I am in the right mindset and feeling stretched out and calm,” said Lloyd. “I usually do the same pre-race warm-ups and habits for each of my different events and that helps me relax and be ready to swim fast.”

Both Lloyd and sophomore Mary Zimmerman said the team performed “extremely well,” and Zimmerman thinks the team “swam faster than we were expecting.”

“As a team, we have been working on motivating one another at meets to swim to our potential,” she added.

Despite the encouraging start to the season and notable individual improvement, Lloyd and the team isn’t resting on their laurels just yet.

“It is cool to already be on the top-10 all-time for other events,” said Lloyd, when asked what it means to see his name in the Lafayette record books. “I am pretty close to some other records, and I plan on adding a couple more this season.”