W. Swim loses twice positively

Young Quakers look strong Sink or swim? Friday afternoon a young, undersized Penn women's swimming team set out for New Haven to answer that very question in its season opening tri-meet versus Cornell and Yale – two heavily-favored, highly-competitive Ivy League powers. The answer was resoundingly positive. "I thought we swam very well," Penn assistant coach Mike Schnur said. "We went into a hostile environment with an obviously smaller team and competed like crazy. The women saw what level they need to swim at to be competitive." Buoyed by a number of fine individual performances, the Quakers (0-2) challenged the Big Red, before dropping the team competition by an overall score of 169-120. Yale, who hasn't lost a meet in over a year, dominated both of its opponents. "We competed incredibly tough," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert said. "We were relentless in some events." "Our upperclass women swam exceptionally well," Schnur said. "We didn't prepare to sprint but we were beating a lot of their girls in the longer events. We came on like crazy in the 200 and up." In particular, sophomore Allison Zegar turned in strong efforts in both the 500- and 1000-yard freestyle events. Sophomore Gillian Beamer was equally tough in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, as well as the 200 individual medley. Beamer finished second overall in the 200 breast (2:32.41), only four seconds behind the winner. "Allison Zegar swam very well," Schnur said. "We were thrilled with her performance. She beat all the Cornell girls. And Gillian Beamer competed like a maniac." Penn's best event, however, may have been the butterfly, where the Quakers, led by freshman Gillian Morris (1:01.86), placed second through fifth overall in the 100. Sophomore Sara Pinney also drew praise for her performance in the 200 fly. "Sarah Pinney did very well," Schnur said. "She was terrific in the 200 fly. She has a lot of potential. Before the season's finished, she's going to do a great job for us in that event." For Penn's four highly-touted freshmen, Friday's tri-meet was their first taste of collegiate competition. "I think it was shocking for some of the freshmen just being in their first collegiate dual meet," senior Eilish Byrne said. Overall, the Quakers were satisfied with the outcome of Friday's meet. "I think the team competed very well," Byrne said. "We worked very hard all through the meet just like we wanted to." According to Lawlor-Gilbert, however, there's still plenty of room for improvement. "We feel the best is yet to come," Lawlor-Gilbert said. · Today, the Penn women's swimming team travels to Princeton for an Ivy League dual meet with the rival Tigers. Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert described Princeton as perennially "very deep and very tough."

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