Over the weekend, the men and women of Penn’s swimming and diving program split up and achieved split results. However, they were both equally impressive.
On Friday evening, Penn’s men’s swimming team authoritatively defeated Columbia’s men, 185-113, in the Quakers’ home debut at Sheerr Pool.
The women followed up on Saturday afternoon, losing to Columbia’s women on the road at Uris Pool, 166-134, despite an impressive overall effort.
Despite the mixed results, coach Mike Schnur was equally enthusiastic about both of his teams’ performances.
“We’re light years better than we were last week,” Schnur said. “I couldn’t be happier with our performance.”
The men’s team (1-1) controlled the meet against Columbia (1-1) from start to finish, taking the top spot in 12 of the 16 overall events, while evening its record and starting off the season strong at home.
They were able to bounce back from a tough loss last week against UConn – which came down to the last event — with a strong team performance. Schnur, though, played down the loss as a motivating factor.
“I just think our guys were ready to defend our home pool and really go at it,” he said. “If we were anywhere within 50 percent of this last weekend, we would have killed UConn.”
It may have been a team performance, but the Red and Blue also had their fair share of individual standouts. Senior captain Rhoads Worster, sophomore Kyle Yu and sophomore Chris Swanson all swam strong races on Saturday.
Coach Schnur was particularly pleased with the performance of freshman diver Jack Stein. Stein twice defeated Columbia diver Derek Kim, two years after Kim turned down attending Penn for what he considered to be a lack of proper diving facilities.
Regardless, the men’s team will have little time to rest on their laurels, as they had practice the very next morning.
“They have to pat themselves on the back for about 15 minutes and then get back to work,” Schnur said.
The women’s team (1-1) also faced Columbia (3-0), but the squad was away from home facing an entirely different beast in the Columbia women’s squad.
“Columbia is the best team in the league right now,” Schnur said. “Regardless, the women were more than up for the challenge, and put together a very strong effort against the powerhouse Columbia squad.
“They put on their fast suits, so we decided to do the same thing and see what we could do,” Schnur said. “We just attacked. We were faster in every single event today than we ever were in a dual meet.”
Standout performances by the women’s team were all over the pool, including the 200-meter medley relay and freshman Rochelle Dong in the 100-meter freestyle, both of whom achieved school records.
Freshmen and sophomores on the team were consistently impressive.
“The younger kids were really terrific today,” Schnur said.
Ultimately, the women fell short, falling back to .500 on the year, but they never stopped fighting.
“In the last event, we already knew we couldn’t beat them, but we still went within .3 seconds of a pool record,” Schnur said.
With solid performances from both teams, optimism around the Penn swimming program is high. Both teams will look to maintain the program’s momentum next Friday and Saturday at Cornell.
SEE ALSO
Penn swimming ready for Columbia split
Penn swimming’s Chris Swanson is back for more after a successful freshman run
Freshman represents Penn swimming at NCAA championships
Penn swimming’s Swanson searches for championship glory
Swimmer Shelby Fortin concludes season at NCAA Championships
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