M. Swimming finishes disappointing 10th at Easterns

After three years of finishing second to Harvard in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships, Princeton finally ended the Crimson's stranglehold on the conference title. The Tigers scored a meet-best 826 points in their own DeNunzio Pool last Saturday after three days of competition. Going into the championships, Penn was well aware of the explosiveness of Princeton and Harvard. Instead of striving for an unrealistic goal, the Quakers focused on improving on last year's seventh-place finish and topping rival Columbia in the standings. But both goals eluded Penn, which finished 10th in the 11-team field. Only Dartmouth placed worse than the Quakers. Behind Princeton were Harvard with 711 points and Yale with 444. Then came Navy, Cornell, Columbia, Army, Brown and Rutgers in ninth place. Penn was 10th with 164 points, 21 more than last-place Dartmouth. The lone bright spot for the Quakers was the extraordinary performance of sophomore Jeff Brown in the 500-yard freestyle. Brown earned 17 points with his second-place finish behind Harvard freshman Brian Younger. Brown's time of 4 minutes, 26.25 seconds was 1.58 seconds off the lead. Brown was one of many swimmers to finish behind Younger. The Crimson rookie captured three Eastern titles -- the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 freestyles. Younger's times of 9:04.08 in the 1,000 free and 15:06.79 in the 1,650 free both were meet records. His record-setting performances automatically qualified him for the NCAA Championships in both events. Despite Younger's efforts, Princeton's depth proved too much for Harvard. The Tigers earned 61 points in the 50 freestyle alone, even though Yale's Jason Rosenbaum took first place. Princeton cleaned up with Shawn Trokhan, Tom Pierce and Fred Klein's 2-3-4 finish. Senior Greg Harper contributed with a sixth-place finish. The Tigers also dominated the relay events, earning 80 points for two first-place finishes. In the 200 freestyle relay, Princeton's team of Trokhan, Harper, Pierce and Klein held off Harvard's squad for a first-place time of 1:20.76. Princeton also won the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:18.14. Tigers senior Bruce Crock was an individual champion in the 200 individual medley. His time of 1:48.98 was more than two full seconds better than second-place finisher Josh Adams of Harvard. Navy secured its fourth-place finish with an utterly dominating performance off the springboards. Off the one-meter board, Midshipman Nate Smith blew away second-place finisher Rich Beukema of Harvard by more than 100 points. Smith's tally of 561.45 secured his place as one of the conference's all-time great divers. Teammate Marcus Fowler placed third in the event with a score of 448.20, just 1.75 points behind Beukema. Penn's 10th-place finish was a disappointing end to a disappointing season. As much as they tried, the Quakers had trouble forgetting their Dec. 10 loss to Columbia. Penn was hanging on to a 10-point lead going into the final event. Needing just a second-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay to clinch a win, the Quakers could only muster third place. The Lions walked away with a 120-117 victory. Having already lost to Cornell, Yale and Princeton, Penn limped into winter break with an 0-4 record. But the Columbia loss hurt more than the first three defeats. While Penn conceded losses in its first three meets, a victory against the Lions seemed possible. And to be that close to victory and lose was perhaps more painful than being blown out. "It was the most crushing defeat I've ever experienced in my career," Brown said after the loss. "And I've been swimming since I was five." Ironically, a canceled trip to Florida may have salvaged the season. Due to a lack of funding, the team's scheduled winter trip to St. Petersburg was changed to a training season here in West Philly. But the empty campus and the hours of shared time in the pool ended up pulling the swimmers together as a team. "The team really came together over break," sophomore Brian Stern said. "It gave a lot of kids who never hang out with the team a chance to get together." The revitalized Quakers won four of their next five dual meets, including EISL wins over Dartmouth and Brown. Penn's run stopped with season-ending losses to Army and Harvard, and the Quakers' record dropped to 4-7 (2-7 EISL). Entering the EISL Championships, Penn had one thing on its mind -- revenge. Penn wanted to pay Columbia back for the early-season defeat. But the Lions came ready to compete, shocking not only the Quakers but the rest of the league en route to a sixth-best 254 points. But the weekend belonged to Princeton. "They're a class above everyone else," Penn senior Jim McGinnis said.