Depleted Brown no match for Penn

The seven swimmers on the Bears'The seven swimmers on the Bears'bench hardly challenged the Quakers There were not many happy faces on the Brown bench Saturday after the Penn men's swimming team mauled the Bears, 134-83, at Sheerr Pool. In fact, there wasn't even much of a bench. With a squad of only seven swimmers, rarely more than two were on the sidelines at any time. The key matchups of the day pitted two of the best freestylers in the league, Brown's senior standout David Galluzzi and Penn junior Jeff Brown against each other in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle. Brown and Galluzzi both blasted out of the blocks in the 200 free, hitting the first turn simultaneously. The two stayed neck and neck, until the third lap, when Brown surged ahead. The race was all over by the fourth lap as Brown took a three-quarter body length lead, finishing the first 100 yards in 50.3 seconds. By the end of the race, Brown's lead had doubled, and by the time he touched the wall, Galluzzi was battling with Penn junior Ken Fletcher for second place. Galluzzi got it, but his time of one minute, 45.82 seconds was nearly 3.5 seconds slower than Brown's. Galluzzi got another crack at Brown a half hour later. The 500 free was the most closest race of the day, with Galluzzi taking on the Quakers' two best freestylers, Brown and freshman sprinter Ryan Kafer. Kafer took the early lead, but by the third lap, all three swimmers were even. In the fourth lap, Brown pulled away. Galluzzi followed, and the two traded the lead back and forth until the 12th lap, when Brown went ahead by almost a full body length. Galluzzi pulled back even and surged past the Quakers captain. However, Brown, who has yet to lose a race this season, rarely stays in second place for long. On the 14th lap, Brown blazed past Galluzzi, who spent the next four laps frantically trying to catch up. On lap 19, Galluzzi pulled even, and both swimmers seemed to make the last turn simultaneously. But the exhausted Galluzzi charged too early. Brown powered past him in the final lap, claiming first place with a time of 4:38.88. Kafer came in third with a time of 4:53. The freshman, Penn's go-to guy in the 50 and 100 free, did not swim either of those events Saturday. Instead, he demonstrated his versatility by winning the 200 individual medley by five seconds. "The outcome isn't the only thing," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert said. "The men knew they were going to win, and they could have just said 'We're just going to swim', but instead they put out really good performances even though they were tired and not really psyched up. "We issued a challenge at the team meeting that this was a time to test ourselves and they responded well to the challenge."