Preparing for two separate championship meets has been even more difficult on the women’s swimming coaches than on the swimmers themselves.
While the Quakers’ top 17 swimmers began the Ivy League Championships yesterday in Boston, the rest of the team is traveling to Pittsburgh to compete in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships at Trees Pool.
In preparation for the meets, Penn (5-4, 3-4 Ivy) has not had intense workouts for several weeks as part of their taper program, which allows the team to be fully rested before the meet. This means that most swimmers are only doing 30 to 40 percent of their usual workouts.
Meanwhile, the coaching staff, led by coach Mike Schnur, has been busy trying to prepare for two championship meets in one weekend. “We have a lot of different practices going on right now,” Schnur said. “It’s taxing; we need a lot of coaching right now.”
Coach Schnur traveled to the Ivy League Championships, leaving first year assistant coach Dan Schupsky to take the rest of the team to Pittsburgh.
Last year, the women’s team finished eighth in the ECAC meet that included a total of 26 teams.
The Red and Blue did particularly strongly in freestyle, where they had four top ten finishes in individual events and two top ten finishes in relays.
Junior Genevieve Fleming contributed three of those four top ten finishes, coming in seventh in the 500-yard free and eighth in the 200 and 1650 free, all events she plans to swim in this year.
Fleming is one of thirteen Quakers who will participate in this year’s women’s ECAC meet, which includes a total of 30 teams.
However Penn’s pre-meet seedings are generally lower this year than they have been at past championships.
Still, Schnur made it clear that the seedings might underestimate how the team does at the ECAC meet.
“The girls are really enthusiastic,” Schnur explained. “The ECAC women are swimming real fast right now.”
The meet marks a culmination of what has been a strong season for the Penn women’s swimming team.
As freshman Caitlin Mumford explained, “We are all really excited for the meet because it is a chance to step up and swim fast after five months of hard training.”
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