W. Swimmers test waters in new style

A little change never hurts. This adage applies to the Penn women's swimming team as it hosts rival Princeton at Sheerr Pool today at 7 p.m. The Quakers will be utilizing an innovative dual-meet format when they take on the Tigers. Instead of using the standard format of sprinting 100 and 200 meters, the two Ivy foes will be cutting the distances in half for this unique sprint meet. This format was first tested two years ago as a means of cutting back the strain usually administered in a conventional meet. Ideally, swimming teams will reduce practicing once they near a meet, but this concept will be foreign to both Penn and the Tigers for the entire season. Each squad will be practicing all-out. To compensate for these grueling workouts, the sprint meet will alleviate the physical strain. The sprint meet will also help Penn because of its lack of depth. The young Quakers are now being forced to deal with the tribulations of collegiate training. By cutting the distance, the physical exertion will be diminished as well. Princeton is coming off a home victory against Pittsburgh this weekend, and is one of the premier teams in the East, let alone the Ivy League. The Tigers (1-0, 0-0 EISL) won the Eastern Championships last season with a complete team effort in all events, and are looking to keep their crown. Similar to Penn (0-2, 0-2), Princeton will not let up for any one meet during the season, and is also looking forward to this chance to compete in this new format. "I think competing in a sprint meet is very beneficial because you get to go all out," Princeton coach Susan Teeter-Eggert said. "Both teams are working much harder because the events are so short. It's also more fun for the swimmers who normally wouldn't get a chance to compete in a race like this." The meet is not only fun for the swimmers, but it represents opportunity for them as well. Since the events are chopped in half, the emphasis on winning is reduced. This enables the coaches to juggle their lineups to take a look at how the freshman swimmers handle a variety of events. "This meet will be good because it will let everyone see just where they are," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert said. "It will be a good challenge to get everyone going because it seemed as if the women especially enjoyed it before, and they competed well." Lawlor-Gilbert is expecting a strong showing from the Quakers because of what happened at the end of last weekend's dual meet against Cornell and Yale. Caught up in a bitter rivalry between the Big Red and the Elis, Penn was able to keep its focus throughout the meet, and swam very well. Also, Penn's only diver, freshman Naomi Stoller, will be put to a test as she competes against three of the premier divers in the league. How she handles the meet will be one of the determinants if the meet is a success. "We have high expectations for Naomi," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "This meet is for experience. With one senior and one junior, we need to get all the experience that we can."