M. Swimming disappointed by blowout loss to Army

Saturday's meet against Army was supposed to be a coming-out party for the Penn men's swimming team, which had won four of its five previous contests. But two of those victories were against Division III schools. Penn's other two wins came at the expense of Dartmouth and Brown, the two cellar dwellers of the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League. The Army meet presented the Quakers with a chance to post their first win against an equal opponent and an opportunity to legitimize their previous victories. But the Cadets had different plans, and they defeated Penn (4-7, 2-6 EISL), 139.5-86.5. "We swam tired," sophomore Jon Levine said. "We didn't swim as fast as we did in the past. In contrast, Army was almost totally rested." The Cadets had also relied on non-conference match-ups to pad its record. Army (7-6, 3-6) completed their non-EISL schedule with a perfect 4-0 record, which enabled it to finish over the .500 mark despite a paltry 3-6 EISL record. The Quakers have one final dual meet this season, Saturday against Ivy superpower Harvard. With the expected loss to the Crimson, Penn will limp into the Eastern Championships with little hope of improving upon last year's seventh place finish. The Cadets fared surprisingly well in the freestyle events, which the Quakers have dominated in recent weeks. Sophomore Ken Fletcher fell behind early in the 200-yard freestyle and never caught up. Senior Bryan Thornton did the same in the 50 free, an event in which he has finished first in Penn's last two meets. Despite the overall poor team performance, some strong individual performances were posted. Most notable was sophomore Jeff Brown's victory in the 1,000 freestyle. The second-year star has already etched his name among the all-time greats in Penn history. Although Brown races all distances -- from 100 yards to a mile -- his strength lies in the 1,000 free. With Saturday's first place, Brown continues to stay on course to meet his goal of reaching the Easterns final in that event. The 1,000 free showcased another stellar Penn performance. Freshman Colin Robinson continued his ascent to the top of Penn's depth chart with his season-best time of 10 minutes, one second. "For him to be putting up season-best times at this point in the season in really encouraging," Levine said. Another encouraging performance was turned in by freshman Rob Hassett, who took first place in the 400 breaststroke, a race which is not usually swam in dual-meet competition. Hassett was one of the early-season surprises for the Quakers, winning a race in his first collegiate meet. Upon returning from winter break, Hassett went through a mini-slump. With first-place finishes in each of his last two meets, the slump appears to be over. The continued success of Hassett will be a key to meeting Penn's postseason aspirations. But those aspirations seem more like wishful thinking, than realistic goals now. If the Army meet was any indication of where the Quakers will place at Easterns, then the 1994-95 season may end up a major disappointment.