Brown Bears invade Penn swimmers' home pool

Men hope current hot streak continues tomorrow As the weather goes, so goes the Penn men's swimming team -- in the opposite direction. After struggling through most of the temperate fall semester, the Quakers are heating up just as most of the University is suffering through the record cold spell. Winners of their last two consecutive dual meets, including a 146-84 scorching of Dartmouth last weekend and a surprising 137-93 victory over Columbia on December 11, the Penn men (2-3 EISL, 3-3 overall) will attempt to boost their league record to the .500 mark for the first time this season when they host Brown (1-3, 1-4) tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m. at Sheerr Pool. The Quakers have been blessed in each of the last two meets with excellent performances up and down the roster. While senior co-captain Rob Morris and freshman standout Jeff Brown have anchored Penn in both the short- and long-distance freestyle events, junior Jim McGinnis and sophomores Sean Davison and Rion Broshears have picked up the slack in the backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke, respectively. The Bears, on the other hand, are led by decorated freestyler and senior co-captain Ben McBride, as well as junior diver Bill Stevenson. In addition, Brown coach Ed Reed is looking for a significant contribution from some of his younger swimmers. "We have a lot of freshmen with some talent," Reed said. "They're not superstars, but we expect them to begin to come into their own toward the end of the season -- beginning this weekend against Penn." "Brown is a very good team that's beaten us the last two years in a row," Penn assistant coach Mike Schnur said. "In fact, last year they beat us pretty easily." Tomorrow's dual meet, however, may be an excellent opportunity for the Quakers to snap that two-year losing streak and put together a little winning streak of their own. Even Reed concedes that Penn might have a slight advantage going into the meet. "I think Penn's a little stronger than we are right now," Reed said. "They've got a great freshman in Jeff Brown. I think [Penn coach] Kathy [Lawlor-Gilbert] has got a little more balance than we do. We're going to compete. We're not tapering off or anything like that. We're just going to have to swim right through the meet and swim as well as we can." Schnur insists the Quakers aren't taking the Bears lightly. "They might be playing possum," Schnur said. "They might want us to be overconfident. That won't happen. We've been focusing all week on Saturday's meet to bring ourselves back to .500. We're on a mission."

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