W. Swim satisfied at Easterns

At the beginning of the season, Penn women's swimming coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert was not able to stress enough the fact all the Quakers were going to be eligible to compete in Easterns this season. Eagerly looking forward to the myriad of experience the season-ending championship meet would provide, Lawlor-Gilbert knew Easterns would be an invaluable factor in rebuilding the swimming program. This weekend at Harvard, Penn faced the best competition the Ivy League had to offer, and the Quakers culminated their season by swimming the best they had all year. Although Penn finished last in the eight-team field, the feeling coming out of the meet was anything but negative for two reasons. First, the young Quakers did not expect to place ahead of any team going into the meet. Because Penn went winless in dual-meet action during the season, and only had four swimmers with previous Easterns experience, there was no pressure to beat anyone at Harvard. With this lack of pressure, the Quakers were able to go out and swim without having to live up to any expectations. Second, every swimmer on the team set a personal record in at least one event at Easterns. This was attributed not only to the quick pace of the meet, but also to the tireless training the Quakers put in all season. Lawlor-Gilbert was intent on swimming well at Easterns at the beginning of the season and set up a training schedule in which the team would not taper until two weeks before Easterns. She wanted to peak at the end of the season, and not during the dual-meet schedule. Her strategy paid off. Junior Allison Zegar, who was Penn's premier swimmer all season, finished off a stellar year by notching 12th place in the tedious 1,650-yard freestyle with a time 17 minutes, 25 seconds. But perhaps the nicest story of the meet was senior captain Grace Tsuei ending her Penn career on a high note. Tsuei was swimming Easterns for the first time in her four years, and she made the most of it by swimming a personal best in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events. The emphasis of the meet for Penn, however, was not on how its lone senior performed, but on how the underclassmen competed. They will be the core of the Quakers in the future. According to Lawlor-Gilbert, Penn wants a team atmosphere. During the recruiting process, various swimmers have expressed their willingness to get athletes who want to be a part of a whole and not just focus on themselves. "They have a team attitude," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "I like that. That's how we start. "The kids showed tremendous character and grit throughout the entire season. You learn much more when you lose than when you win. It's not like our focus was to go out and lose. Instead our focus was to be individually as tough as possible, and everyone showed that toughness." Lawlor-Gilbert praised the Quakers on not outwardly showing any signs of intimidation throughout Easterns. By walking around with a sense of pride, Penn was not only sporting its toughness, but also its willingness to use Easterns as a learning experience. "It was really exciting to watch all the good teams," freshman Kourtney Krom said. "It gives you goals, something to look forward to." To accomplish these goals, it is up to the underclassmen to pass their experience down to the incoming classes. This can only help Penn, because the experience factor was nonexistent this season. "I'm not sure," said freshman Jen Marzullo, who set two personal bests, when asked how her class can pass on its experience. "Our coaches were the ones who told us it was a fast meet. Next year there will be more of us who went through it, as opposed to only half the team who went through it last year." If the Quakers have to continue learning, there is no better mentor than Lawlor-Gilbert -- at least according to the NCAA. Lawlor-Gilbert was selected to teach a national swimming clinic coinciding with the NCAA championship at the University of Texas over spring break. Participating in this clinic is prestigious because only nine other coaches in the country are selected to attend. An experienced coach combined with a determined and improving team. The formula has been set.