Swimming set to jump into the pool with Lions

Columbia features a 1996 Olympic gold medalist in Christina Teusacher. While the circus might not be in town this weekend, Columbia will be. And the Penn men's and women's swimming teams are hoping to take on the role of Lion tamers. The Quakers will host their first Ivy meet of the year when their women's squad swims against Columbia at Sheerr Pool tomorrow at 6 p.m., and the men's teams swim at 2 p.m. the following day. While the men have reason to believe they can topple Columbia, the women acknowledge that they have little chance to prevail. The single greatest roadblock between the Quakers and their second Ivy win of the season -- which would make this their first multi-win Ivy season since 1989-90 -- is Columbia superstar Christina Teuscher, a 1996 Olympic gold medalist. "Christina Teuscher is the best swimmer in the country," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "You could make an argument she's the best swimmer in the country, period -- not just college. She has a good chance to be on our Olympic team in a lot of events. We can't beat her in anything she does." Schnur also said that Columbia has two talented freshmen who, in addition to Teuscher, figure to dominate the Quakers Friday night. "They may not have a lot of depth; we actually may pick up a lot of seconds and thirds and fourths in the meet," Schnur said. "But when you have those three women who can win whatever they swim, plus very strong diving, you know going into the meet you're probably not going to be deep enough to beat them." Another reason that Penn will likely go down in defeat Friday night is the rampant and debilitating circulation of the flu bug among the members of the team. An estimated 25 percent of the team missed practice yesterday due to illness, and not all who are sick will be well by Friday's meet. "[These illnesses are] going to take away some of our points on Friday," Schnur said. "After finals, we have really intense training, so hopefully people will start to get better," junior captain Cathy Holland said. Because Penn has little chance to prevail, the Quakers are taking the opportunity to use the meet as not only a measuring stick but also as a chance to have some fun. Many swimmers will compete in events that are not necessarily their best, and the meet will include the mile and the 400-yard individual medley. Among the swimmers of the former will be sophomore Kay O'Meara, although it is not yet known who else will participate. "We're just looking at Friday as just kind of something fun that we're all going to do as a team," Holland said. "We're going to get up there, we're going to swim as fast as we possibly can, while training hard. "They've got a lot of good girls on their team, so it will be good to get up there and race these girls, especially when we're tired. Just to gauge where we are." On the other side of the pool, the Penn men's team believes it can be competitive with the Lions. At last year's Penn-Columbia meet in New York, the Quakers were defeated by just seven points when then-freshman diver Matt Cornell was defeated by his Columbia counterparts in the very last event of the meet. But the Quakers feel that the change in venue might be worth more than the seven points they lost by last February. "They had the advantage last year. It was their pool," Penn senior swimmer and captain Amir Rozwadowski said. "But this is our home pool." The men will thus be champing at the bit to get in the pool against the Lions this weekend. "All I want to do is win," Schnur said. "Columbia's our most bitter rival in swimming. [They're] usually very, very close meets." The meet is also important to the Quakers because it is their last before winter break, and Penn would like nothing more than to send itself into the vacation on an up note. In addition, the Quakers will have put themselves in position to make an immediate impact next semester. "Most of the guys are looking to make a big statement to end the semester," Rozwadowski said. Their second Ivy win would also serve to tide the team over until January 8 against Drexel, which is its first meet after this weekend. However, Penn will need to be in top form to beat the Lions. On the other hand, Columbia, which swims against Fordham on Friday night, lost to Cornell last Saturday and will definitely face the Quakers while carrying a losing record. "We're hoping for? some guys to really step up and do their lifetime best times and swim fast," Schnur said. In any case, the men will have their juices flowing when they jump into the pool Saturday afternoon. "This is one of the meets that you look forward to in the beginning of the season. You can point towards two or three meets during the year and say, 'That's the one we're going to have fun with,'" Schnur said. "This is our version of Auburn-Alabama."

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