Penn has goggles set on third

After hundreds of practices and thousands of laps, the only obstacle to success that remains for the Penn women’s swimming team is a mental one.

For the next three days, the Quakers’ focus will be put to the test during the Ivy League Championships held at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool in Boston.

Though Princeton and Harvard are heavily favored to finish first and second, respectively, Penn (5-4, 3-4 Ivy) hopes to beat out Yale and Columbia to take third place.

“As a team, our goal has been third since the moment I stepped onto this deck freshman year,” said senior freestyler Amy Reams.

Head coach Mike Schnur has a related, albeit different goal for his team: for each swimmer to post personal bests.

“If they do that, the placing will take care of itself,” he said. “I’m much more concerned with how we do individually, [because] one leads into another.”

In the last three years, Penn has not finished higher than fourth, but this could be the year the Quakers crack the top three.

“Yale is probably our biggest competition [for third],” Reams said.

According to pre-meet seedings, the Bulldogs (8-3, 5-2) have a significant point advantage in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly.

The remaining events leave plenty of room for the Quakers to make up points, including the 100 breaststroke, where sophomore Laura Klick and freshman Ji Young Lee are seeded fourth and seventh, respectively.

Seniors Stephanie Nerby and Andrea Balint are also seeded in the top eight in their events. Nerby will compete in the 200 and 1000 free, while Balint will swim in the 200 and 400 individual medley.

With the season winding down, the Quakers’ training is slowing as well, as part of their taper program.

Throughout the taper, practice volume has decreased to about one-third of the yards swum during regular training. It is meant to keep the swimmers relaxed and fresh heading into the most important races of the season.

And while it is common for swimmers to experience the “taper blues”— where athletes doubt their training and subsequent rest before championships — a simple sign gives the Quakers confidence and reminds them that they are prepared.

Hanging in the locker room, the sign records each practice, lap, dry-land session and early morning workout the team has completed since the start of the season.

While the team’s taper program has remained the same as last year, they will be competing in different racing suits.

FINA, swimming’s worldwide governing body, outlawed the high-technology suits worn in last year’s Ivy Championships. Speedo launched the LZR Racer Elite in December in order to comply with new regulations, but Penn did not purchase them.

“They were exorbitantly expensive, and we were told they didn’t matter that much,” Schnur said. But “one of the women who got one looked awfully good wearing it at practice.”

Regardless of what suits the athletes wear this weekend, the Quakers are enthusiastic and, as their sign shows, physically prepared. The rest is just mental.

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