W. Swimmers finish near bottom

BY MICHAEL HASDAYBY MICHAEL HASDAYDaily Pennsylvanian Sports Writer The eight women swimmers who represented Penn at the Easterns swam well, but could not handle the fierce competition of the east, as they finished 10th out of 11 teams. The meet, held at Princeton's Denunzio Pool, was dominated by the home team. The Tigers collected 718 points in their victory. Harvard finished a distant second with 518.5 points, followed by Brown, Cornell and Yale. The Quakers amassed only 107 points, last in the Ivies, and only better than Army's 75 points. This result was predictable as the Quakers lacked the experience and the depth of their competitors. These handicaps, however, did not stop Penn from turning in some fine individual performances. "We weren't there to win," sophomore Gillian Beamer said. "We just wanted to swim our fastest and do our best. It went well." Perhaps the best Penn effort was delivered by sophomore Alison Zegar. Penn's top finisher from a year ago, Zegar continued to excel at the the Eastern Championships. She placed 11th in the 1,650-yard freestyle in 17:25.67 and 10th in the 200 free in 1:54.54. Penn's highest-placing and only top-eight finish was a group effort in the 800 free relay. Three sophomores -- Tanya Nolan, Kerry Bolstad and Zegar, along with freshman Gillian Morris -- placed eighth in 7:50.02. Morris, who also placed 14th in the 200 butterfly at her first-ever Easterns, felt the competition was as intense as advertised. "It was pretty tough," Morris said. "A lot of girls were really fast. They were not out of our league. We were competitive with most of them. It was nothing that we didn't expect." Morris also felt she learned an important lesson during the Easterns -- one must remain calm during the competitive fury of the championships. "[The Easterns] were a lot of fun," Morris said. "I just need to relax more when I swim, and not be tense about it." Freshman Natalie Wolfinger had a lot of fun at the Easterns as she took full advantage of her opportunity. It is always nice to swim one's lifetime best at the league champions, and that is exactly what she did in the 200 backstroke, placing 18th overall. "It was really competitive," Wolfinger said. "I didn't think it would be as fast as it was." She felt the entire team performed admirably considering the number of swimmers that competed for Penn. "The team did well," Wolfinger said. "A few people had all-time bests." But the eight just weren't enough.