Swim teams face Navy and Hopkins this weekend

Women face Midshipmen for first time in history It will be a busy weekend at Sheerr Pool as the Penn women's swimming team will host two dual meets over the weekend in its quest to qualify as many swimmers as possible for the Eastern Championships next month. The Quakers (2-6) will meet Navy (6-4) for the first time in school history this afternoon at 4:00 p.m., and Johns Hopkins (7-3), a fixture in the Division III Top 10, on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. "Navy is very strong," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert said. "But they had some people graduate last year. It'll be a good meet because we match up well. We're pretty strong in some events where they're weak and they're strong where we're weak. I think we have a good chance." The Midshipmen are led by sophomore Heidi Searon, a middle- and long-distance freestyler, versatile junior Caroline Wisner, and freshman diving phenom Darcy Stewart. After the meet against Navy, Penn will not have much time to relax before the Quakers return to action. Against Johns Hopkins Sunday, Penn will enjoy a rare opportunity to compete on equal footing since the diving competition won't be scored. The Blue Jays, while undefeated in Division III competition, have already lost some to mediocre Division I teams including Maryland, Navy and Maryland-Baltimore County earlier this season. "Johns Hopkins is a very good team that's much improved over last year," Penn assistant coach Mike Schnur said. "We have a little more depth than they do which may give us an edge, but there ought to be a lot of competitive races." While the Quakers would certainly like to bolster their overall record this weekend, Penn's primary focus will once again be on qualifying and tuning up for the Eastern Championships. "We've eased up a little bit on the girls who haven't qualified yet [for Easterns]," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "We want to provide as many opportunities as possible for our girls to make their cuts. They're going to be very competitive this weekend."