Two minutes before sophomore Steve Polucha was due on the starting block Saturday for the once-a-year marathon event, the one-mile swim, he took off his warmups and moved next to head coach Lou Walker.

Standing poolside, Walker and Polucha exchanged a few words before Polucha slowly shook his head and broke for the blocks.

In a sport dominated by events that take less than three minutes to complete, the 1,650-yard freestyle, Polucha said, ‘takes forever.’

So did the meet itself. In Webster Pool’s only two-day meet of the season, the Orangemen (2-3) barely lost to UMass (4-1), 140-137. The Orangewomen (3-2) beat UMass women (3-3), 192-140.

Nobody knew that the men’s meet would come down to three points, but most believed it would be close. In a sport where even fifth place gets points, the Orangemen knew somebody had to swim the mile. And so Polucha, who considers 200 yards to be his optimal distance, was taking one for the team.

His teammates understood his sacrifice.

As Polucha hunched down on the block, the Syracuse swimming and diving team erupted in applause. As he hit the water, the first of six swimmers to break the pool’s surface, they started chanting his name. When he finished the first 25-yards in first place, they went wild.

‘It was something else,’ Polucha said. ‘I thought it was funny because for the first couple of laps everybody was up cheering for me already, and I was like, ‘I still have 20 minutes left. Geez. Sit down and chill out for a while. Wait until the end and see how I do.’ ‘

In the end? Not too well. By lap six, Polucha had fallen to second place. By the 17:48.08-mark, when he finished, he was fourth of four. In collegiate swimming, fourth place is good for two points.

Mission accomplished.

‘I (swam the event) because Coach doesn’t really have a true distance swimmer, and the only people who could really do it are me and Josh (Scott),’ Polucha said. ‘Maybe Djordje (Filipovic) could do it, but no one else on the team knows how. Since we are small, you have to do whatever you can to get the team points.’

Two swimmers besides Polucha swam the 1,650-yard freestyle. Distance freestylers Ashley Danowski and Lindsey Clark finished in first and second place, respectively, for the Orangewomen.

The meet was divided into three segments – Friday evening, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. After Friday, both the Orangemen and the Orangewomen led.

‘I am pleased with how (the men) are competing,’ Walker said Friday night. ‘We don’t have a lot of guys, and UMass is wearing the speed suits, and we are still in the hard part of our training program. But when they came out and went 1-2-3 in the 500- (yard freestyle), we came right back and went 1-2-3 in the 50- (yard freestyle). I loved that, that competitive feeling. We are going to compete that well whether the numbers take over and do us in or not.’

The numbers theme once again doomed the Orangemen. Where UMass had 27 men, Syracuse had only 13.

Thirteen was almost enough.

Sean Clark, UMass’s acting head coach – head coach Russ Yarworth was with the Final Four bound water polo team – was impressed by the Orangemen. They did, however, lose to UMass for the second year in a row despite two individual wins by Filipovic.

‘Syracuse has some amazing swimmers,’ Clark said. ‘The breaststroker (Spencer Raymond) out there is doing some fantastic stuff, and the backstroker (Gustavo Kertzscher, 200-yard) with a 1:52? It just seems that they replace everybody they lose.’

Sparked by sophomore roommates Meg Daney, Annie Tudryn and Elyse McDonough, each of whom won two individual events, the Orangewomen beat UMass for the second year in a row.

Three other Orangewomen captured first-place finishes.

‘We were aggressive, we got out in front, we did a nice job,’ Walker said Saturday. ‘I thought we performed really well.’

In his 66-lap marathon, Polucha just performed. A minute off his best time, the middle-distance specialist won everybody’s respect, including that of Donna Heinel, UMass’ women’s assistant coach.

‘It is a mentally challenging event,’ she said. ‘It can get the best of you if you let it into your head.’

If you listen to Polucha, it was a different sort of mental aspect that almost got to him. It was his coach’s pre-event advice that caused him to struggle.

Understanding the mental pressure, Walker had instructed Polucha to forget about the event, forget about his stroke, and instead think about Raymond, his roommate and teammate, naked.

As he walked to the starting block, shaking his head, Polucha was laughing.

‘It wasn’t happening,’ he said afterward. ‘I ended up just trying to hold onto something, some kind of good thought, without trying to think about him naked. Ugh.’

Published on December 2, 2001 at 12:00 pm