M. Swim is crushed by Princeton

On paper, it was obvious Princeton had a much stronger men's swimming team than Penn. Led by seniors Lee Biddle and Bruce Crock, the Tigers are one of the top teams in the country. The Quakers, on the other hand, are struggling to compete with the rest of the Ivy League teams. So it was not surprising when the final scoreboard read 160-78 in favor of Princeton yesterday at Scheerr Pool. What was surprising was Princeton coach Rob Orr never let up on Penn, sending out his top swimmers to run up the score against the Quakers (0-3, 0-3 EISL). "In swimming, you can move your people around to ease up on the team," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert said. "In one way you can look at this as a compliment because he didn't ease up until the very last event. He put his best people in all the races throughout the meet." Princeton (2-0, 1-0 EISL) jumped out to an early 74-18 lead with victories in the 1,650-yard freestyle, 200 freestyle, 50 freestyle and 200 individual medley. That 200 freestyle race may have been the highlight of the meet. Penn sophomore Ken Fletcher took control of the race in the first 25 yards. The pre-race favorite, Princeton's Fred Klein, laid back with the pack for the first 60 yards. Slowly, Klein, an NCAA qualifier last year, began to close the gap. At about the 125-yard mark, Klein passed Fletcher. Fletcher was right behind Klein, until Klein made his turn at the wall. From there on, Klein overpowered Fletcher, winning the race in 1 minute, 43.03 seconds. Fletcher finished in second with a time of 1:46.60. Penn sophomore Jeff Brown had another strong meet. After winning his three middle-distance events against Cornell and Yale, Brown competed in his first distance event this season. He finished second in the 1,650 freestyle in 16:15.73. Five races later, in the 100 freestyle, Brown struck again. With a time of 47.41 seconds, he took first place. Finishing in third with a time of 48.66 seconds was Fletcher. "I thought there was tremendous effort expended," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "They really gave it everything they had." The Tigers dominated the diving events. Princeton won first through third places in the 1-meter springboard event, and first and second on the 3-meter board. Off the 1-meter board, Princeton's Mike Nels finished first with a cumulative score of 286.05. Penn's top finisher was junior Josh Schultz with 236.85 points, good for fourth place. Schultz started off strong with impressive first and second dives, but was inconsistent on the next four. Schultz lost some of his flare on the 3-meter board, but gained consistency. He ended up in third behind Princeton's Bill Peranteau and Nels. "Josh unfortunately had some bad luck in diving," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "But Josh Schultz has been one of the best divers I've ever had on my team because he's like clockwork." It was a rough meet for the Quakers. The other EISL teams will soon experience the same frustration, when they take on Princeton. "It's somewhat lopsided, but I think it's really good to go into things straight up and see where you are," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "If you have to take it on the chin, you take it on the chin. But you learn from that, and you get better."