This past Saturday, the Massachusetts men’s swimming and diving team did something that the men’s basketball team will try and do later tonight; beat Connecticut. The Minutemen improved to a record of 5-2 with a 139-104 victory over the Huskies. All in all, the Minutemen took 10 events during the meet and head into their winter break on a two-meet winning streak.

Senior Chris Arsenault once again led the way for the Maroon and White, as he took two individual firsts and one more in the 400-yard freestyle relay. In the 200-yard butterfly, Arsenault finished with a time of 1:54.78. He followed this win with another in the 200-yard freestyle. Arsenault’s time of 1:42.62 was good enough for the second best time of the year for the Minutemen. This season the senior holds the Atlantic 10’s fastest time in an amazing five events.

Arsenault, who won the Atlantic 10 Men’s Swimming and Diving Performer of the Week for the second straight week and the third time this season, also led the Minutemen to a first place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Arsenault combined with fellow senior Mike Sabina and a pair of sophomores, Chad Arnold and Ryan Zaucha, to take the event with a time of 3:09.91.

Other winners for the Minutemen included junior Ryan Fisher, sophomore Tommy Keane and freshman Logan Alomar. Fisher registered the best time of the season for UMass in the 50-yard freestyle. His time of 21.23 was more than two tenths of a second better than Sabina’s former best time of 21.44.

Keane continued his recent fine form by winning the 1000-yard freestyle in a time of 9:43.76. In the last two meets Keane has picked up three individual first place finishes. Alomar has also performed very well lately and picked up his second consecutive victory in the three-meter dive competition. Alomar’s score of 289.95 was better than that of anybody else on the Minutemen this year, but missed his top score by almost eight full points.

Victories from the quartet of Arsenault, Fisher, Keane and Alomar have become the norm as of late, but it was the really performance of some other swimmers that secured the victory for UMass.

Senior Billy Brown and sophomore Zaucha, a pair of Californians, came up big for the Minutemen, each winning multiple events. Brown took the 200-yard breaststroke and was in on the 400 medley relay victory. In the 200 breast, Brown finished with a time of 2:05.54, just barely missing his season best time. In the 400 medley relay, Brown teamed up with Zaucha, Sabina and fellow senior Joe Martin to knock off the Huskies in a time of 3:26.50.

Along with his two relay wins, Zaucha also placed first in the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 1:53.67. Freshman Peter Tawczynski rounded out the winners for UMass by taking the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 1:55.86. The win was just Tawczynski’s second of the season for the Minutemen.

The Minutemen now have almost an entire month off before returning to action on Saturday Jan. 6 at the Sarasota Invitational in Sarasota, Fla.