Penn women’s swimming will look to end its conference season on a high note when it kicks off the Ivy League Championships at DeNunzio Pool at Princeton on Thursday.
While the Quakers (5-5, 2-5 Ivy) struggled toward the end of their regular season conference schedule, the squad is both motivated and relaxed heading into the tournament.
After splitting their first four Ivy League dual meets this season, the Red and Blue dropped their final three head-to-head Ancient Eight matchups.
Despite the losses, though, there are plenty of reasons for the Quakers to feel confident this weekend.
Most of the Quakers swimming at the Championships this weekend haven’t competed in the pool since a Feb. 2 matchup against La Salle.
“All of the women who are swimming at Ivies except one have been off now for almost a month,” coach Mike Schnur said. “This is the time of year where we rest, fine-tune our races and work on starts and turns.”
Senior co-captain Blair Webb agrees that she and her teammates have definitely benefited from a few weeks outside of the pool.
“The rest definitely helps,” Webb said. “This is the only meet all year where we’re really rested.”
Penn also features two veteran swimmers who have found past Ivy League Championships success.
In her first two years with the Red and Blue, junior Shelby Fortin is a five-time Ivy League champion.
As a freshman in 2011, Fortin captured first place in the 200, 500 and 1000 meter freestyles. She repeated in the 200 and 500m events at last season’s tournament.
While the Quakers will be putting a young group of swimmers into the water this weekend, whatever success they find will stem from swimmers like Webb and Fortin.
“I hope I can rely on my upperclassmen,” Schnur said. “Basically, the upperclassmen just need to keep the freshmen calm and make sure they’re not so nervous.”
“We organized a team meeting last weekend where we just had everyone think for themselves why they’re going to swim fast this weekend,” Webb added. “We don’t want anyone going into this tournament too overwhelmed.”
Finally, the difference between dual meets and the Ivy League Championships may provide the Quakers with an advantage. The tournament features a unique format, with preliminary races every morning and championship races at night.
“Dual meets and Championships are so different because we were tired all the time at dual meets,” Schnur said. “We’re not tired now, and we should get up there and have the opportunity to race faster than we have all year.”
The question for the Quakers then becomes this: Will the team perform better than it did at dual meets?
According to Schnur, “we’re gonna find that out this weekend.”
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