Penn swimming falls to Harvard

The score sometimes doesn’t tell the whole story.

In its final dual meet of the season, the Penn men’s swimming team fell to Harvard, 168-130. But coach Mike Schnur had only positive things to say about his team’s performance.

“We earned every point we got, and it was by far the best Harvard meet we’ve ever swam,” he said.

The seniors made a particularly strong impact, in their final meet at Sheerr Pool,. Brendan McHugh won the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 55.39, nearly three seconds faster than the second place finisher. McHugh also won his final individual event at Sheerr Pool — the 200 meter breaststroke — in 2:02.16.

Senior diver Jeff Cragg also won both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. In the 3-meter, he broke the record set only a week ago with a point total of 365.33, nearly 50 points better than the Harvard runner-up.

Cragg’s record wasn’t the only one broken. The 200-meter IM squad set a pool record of 1:03.09, thanks to impressive individual legs from McHugh and sophomore Rhoads Worster.

“That record will stand for a long, long time,” Schnur said.

The Quakers now have two weeks until the Ivy League Championships, which Princeton will host.

“Princeton has the best facility in the league, and we typically perform very well there,” Schnur said.

He is also confident about his team’s preparation. For the most part, the swimmers will be tapering their workouts going into the final week.

“They’ve worked extremely hard this season, and at this point, we just want them to be healthy going into Champs,” Schnur said.

But despite his confidence for the championship meet, Schnur is going to be sad to see the senior class go.

“They’re truly irreplaceable and they’re one of the best classes we’ve ever had,” he said. “I hope their performance at Champs reflects that.”

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