Fifteen minutes before Saturday's swim meet, the Penn men's and women's swim teams learned that their bus company would not take them back from New Haven, Conn., to Philadelphia because of the expected snow. Team members would have to stay at Yale for another night.
In addition to several illnesses, this news set the tone for the meet against Yale and Dartmouth.
Yale claimed victories over both the Red and Blue and the Big Green. On the men's side, the Elis defeated the Quakers 181-107. For the women, Yale powered past Penn, 199.5-99.5. Penn's men overpowered Dartmouth 198-102 while the women topped the Big Green 205-94.
"I expected a tough meet from Yale for both men and women," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "On the women's side, I felt that we could take care of Dartmouth. On the men's side, Dartmouth's times in previous meets indicated that they would be tough competition. Our men's team was basically stronger than Dartmouth's in the end."
The Penn men (2-5, 1-5 EISL) opened strong, winning the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:34.50.
Scott earned a second victory later in the meet in the 50-yard freestyle. Scott edged two of Yale's sprint swimmers, Kieran Locke and Matt Thunell, with his 21.36 time.
"Kevin did a great job," Schnur said.
The Quakers breaststrokers pulled through for the men's team, winning the top three spots in both the 100- and the 200-yard breaststroke. In the 100 breaststroke, the Red and Blue supplied the only men to record sub-one minute times.
"Our depth was way too much for either Yale or Dartmouth in the breaststroke," Schur said.
One reason for Yale's dominance is the difference in meet schedules.
"Yale's biggest meet is next week [against Harvard and Princeton], ours is in five weeks." Schnur said. "They've been resting while we are a bit tired."
In addition, many of the swimmers on Penn's men's team are underclassmen.
"Younger swimmers can experience growing pains," Schnur said. "They're not quite as physically mature as 21- or 22-year-olds."
On the women's side, the distance freestylers finished strong for the Quakers (4-4, 3-4 Ivy). In the 1000-yard freestyle, the meet's longest event, sophomore Cameron Villareal claimed the victory with a time of 10:22.62. Senior Maureen Shriver finished second, posting a 10:27.16 finish.
"One of the women's team's strengths is in distance freestyle," Schnur said. "We were at a different level than the other teams in the 1000."
Villareal went on to finish second in the 500 free with a time of 5:06.26.
The women also finished strong in the concluding event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Penn inched out the victory, 0.21 seconds ahead of Yale, with a 3:35.89 time.
"The women have won the race all season," Schnur said. "They stepped up for pride, even though the race wouldn't change the outcome of the meet."
In diving, junior Tyler Markman finished second at three meters.
"We dove really early in the morning," Penn diving coach Julie Van Deusen said. "I was a little disappointed in our one-meter diving, but we did better at three meters. We just need to keep focused on what to do."
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