M. Swimmers ready for challenging Tigers

With one of the nation's top men's swimming teams visiting Penn this afternoon, the Quakers are hoping to pull off the biggest upset of the young swimming season. And when that team happens to come from Princeton, it is clear the Penn swimmers will be giving it everything they've got. But recently the Penn-Princeton rivalry has dissolved into an easy win for the Tigers (1-0, 0-0 EISL). During the past few years, Princeton has churned out national qualifiers, individual national champions and an Olympian. Despite the national attention given to Princeton's program, the Quakers (0-2, 0-2 EISL) are still looking to put up a challenge in front of the home crowd at Sheerr Pool today at 4 p.m. "I don't feel we're going to go into any meet conceding a loss," sophomore Jeff Brown said. But just putting up a fight will be difficult enough for the Quakers. While Penn is coming off losses to Cornell and Yale, the Tigers crushed Pittsburgh in their only meet to date. Princeton was dominant, winning nine of the 14 races en route to a 171-129 victory. Leading the charge for the Tigers was Fred Klein, who finished first in both the 100- and 200-yard freestyle events. Klein also was on the second-place 800 freestyle relay. Key contributions also came from Lee Biddle and Davin Quinn. Biddle won the 100 backstroke, took second in the 200 backstroke and led the 200 medley relay team to a first-place finish. Quinn won the 200 breaststroke and finished second in the 100 breaststroke. Princeton's strength does not come from one or two swimmers, but from its tremendous depth. Penn's strength is concentrated in a select few individuals. Against Pitt, the Tigers had nine different swimmers win at least one event, including the relays. Brown, who is coming off wins in the 200 freestyle and the 200 and 500 butterfly, will try to engineer a Penn upset. He will be one of the few Quakers favored to win his races. The versatile sophomore was one of the top distance swimmers in the East lst year, before switching to the middle-distance races. Brown could compete in any race this afternoon, depending on what coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert feels will be best for the team. "She'll try to set up the best matchups against their swimmers," Brown said. Penn is also looking for repeat performances from freshmen Rob Hassett and Andrew Valins, who finished 1-2 in the 200 breaststroke over the weekend. The expected return of senior Jim McGinnis should also help solidify the backstroke races. McGinnis did not compete Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y., due to personal reasons. But Penn just does not have the depth and firepower Princeton does. The Quakers will take any individual first places or exceptionally strong performances as a moral victory. "Princeton's a very, very good team," Brown said. "Right now, we're not ready to compete to win with them."