Both the men’s and women’s teams are coming off of convincing victories versus Boston College on senior night last week. The men won by a score of 254-58 and the women prevailed 216-78.

With the Atlantic 10 Championships coming closer each day, women’s head coach Bob Newcomb spoke of the physical toll a season puts on his swimmers and divers.

“It’s an interesting time of year, we got a lot of the little bumps and bruises and injuries that are starting to pop their head up,” Newcomb said.

Men’s head coach Russ Yarworth is hoping to use the Dartmouth Invitational as preparation for upcoming tournaments.

“It’s a very big meet for them and that’s what I’m looking at. If the score comes out with us on top I’ll be happy with that too, but really our focus this time of year is preparing for the championships,” Yarworth said.

Yarworth is referring to the A-10 Championships, which will be held from Jan. 24-27 in Buffalo, N.Y.

“The key for this week is for the kids to swim their championship events, and we also have eight kids shaved and tapered competing for the last 3 spots on the Atlantic 10 roster,” Yarworth said.

Newcomb agreed with Yarworth that preparing the swimmers and divers is essential.

“Virtually everything we do during the year is geared towards getting them set for Buffalo,” Newcomb said.

The first annual Dartmouth Invitational will feature five East Coast schools: UMass, Bryant, the Big Green, Maine and Boston College.

The Minutewomen will enter the tournament with a 3-2 record in nine events overall. They’ve defeated BC, Army and Stony Brook and lost to Boston University and Northeastern.

The Minutemen boast an impressive 4-1 record, with victories against Army, Stony Brook, Yale and the Eagles. Their lone defeat came at the hands of the Terriers.

The Big Green men’s team will look to build on their 1-4 record and the women will attempt to improve their 3-4 mark.

Both Bryant squads come into the tournament with recent success. The men have taken three of their last four and the women have taken two of their last three events.

The Maine women’s team enters the tournament winners of its last two events with a 5-5 record while the men enter the tournament at 6-3.

Finally, BC’s men’s team has a 10-6 record and the women have 12 events under their belts.

Newcomb and Yarworth have preached preparation for bigger events, but coming away with a victory this weekend would also be nice.

“We’ve had a really good week of workouts and I’m really happy and impressed with what they’re doing,” Newcomb said. “Ideally we’d like to keep it going.”

Both teams have one goal this season – win the A-10 tournament – and an impressive outing in the pool this weekend could go a long way to achieving that goal.

Jackson Alexander can be reached at [email protected]