Penn swimming's Fortin solid in NCAA Championships

On Saturday night, one of Penn’s all-time best swimmers stepped up to the starting block for her final time with the Quakers.

Far away from the comfort of the Sheerr Pool, senior Shelby Fortin competed in three final events at the NCAA National Championships in Minnesota, bringing to a close what has been a truly remarkable collegiate career.

Fortin qualified for three NCAA Championship events, the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle, with her times at the Ivy Championship in late February.

On Thursday, Fortin placed 49th in the 500 freestyle event with a time of 4:46.91. Fortin touched up in 1:47.94 on Friday, good for 43rd place in the 200 free. Both of these finishes were improvements upon her results from last year’s NCAA Championships, when she finished 58th and 49th in the two events.

“Her times were faster than last year, which was great, considering she had been battling some illness this past week,” coach Mike Schnur said. “This is one of the fastest meets in the world, and you have multiple Olympians in every event, and for her to come out here to finish her career was just great.”

On Saturday, Fortin swam her final race for the Red and Blue and finished 55th in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 50.01 seconds.

With this final weekend of racing, Fortin capped off perhaps the greatest career of any women’s swimmer in Penn history. Fortin will graduate with seven Ivy Championship victories and has more individual and Sheerr Pool record times than any other female swimmer.

“You can tell part of her legacy from just looking at the record boards, but that’s not even the half of it,” Schnur said. “She set a tone and work ethic and made it a goal for members of this program to compete in the NCAA’s. The girls on this team that follow her to the NCAA Championships, they will be her real legacy.”

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