Diving is Penn's undoing at Navy

Despite capturing first place in six of the eleven swimming events, the Penn men's swimming team still lost to Navy on Saturday in Annapolis, Md. The Midshipmen blew past the Quakers, 141-99. Navy 's dream team of divers decided the meet. The combination of Olympic hopeful Nate Smith, Mark Fowler, and Matt Dobbins swept the top three spots in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events, scoring 32 points to Penn's four. The Quakers' top diver, senior Josh Schultz, could not attend the meet, and diving duty fell solely on the shoulders of sophomore C.J. Sipowicz, who placed fourth in both events. Penn (4-3) fared much better in the swimming events. For the first time this season, the Quakers swam in a pool measured in meters instead of yards. The blocks were higher, the races were longer, and the times were slower. "A lot of teams fall apart when they go to Annapolis," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor Gilbert said. "Teams have been dreadful down there. They have a long ride, then they have to get of the bus, warm up for an hour and make that adjustment to meters. "When the guys see their time in the first event, the 400 individual medley relay, it looks slow, and they get worried. It's a totally different environment and there's no real conversion. But you can't use that as an excuse, and the guys didn't." Swimming at Navy (7-0) actually proved advantageous to one Penn swimmer. In high school, sophomore Colin Robinson's best event was the 400-meter IM. Although there is a 400 IM event at Easterns, most dual meet races are half that distance. For the first time this season, Robinson got to swim his specialty. He made the most of the opportunity, winning the race with a time of 4 minutes,43.13 seconds, a half-second faster than the second-place finisher. "The 200 IM is really a 50-meter sprint in each stroke, and you don't have to be strong in each stroke," Robinson said. "In the 400, one weak leg can cost you the race. They're two different events, and I prefer the 400. It's good to get it in a couple of times during the season since that'll be the race at Easterns." Robinson came back two events later to take second place in the 200 butterfly. Teammate Ken Fletcher won that event by two seconds. The conversion to the metric system did not seem to be affecting anyone. The most anticipated matchup of the day pitted Penn captain and Eastern champion Jeff Brown against Navy's rising star, sophomore Britton Smith, in the 200 freestyle. Smith's times had been stellar so far, and many around the league thought the sophomore would hand Brown his first defeat of the season. Brown had other ideas, whipping Smith in both the 200 and 400 freestyle. After losing the 50 freestyle by .06 seconds, freshman Ryan Kafer pounded Navy's best freestyler in the 100 freestyle, winning in 52.60 seconds. Kafer swam an even faster 100 meters to lead off the last event of the day -- the 400 freestyle relay. Both coaches agreed before the meet to enter their two best relay teams, and with the exception of one Navy substitution, each side kept its promise. In the end, the Quakers squad of Kafer, sophomore Brian Levine, senior Geoff Munger and Brown negated Navy's home advantage. Munger's monster third leg secured the lead for Quakers, and then Brown brought it home. "The 400 relay showed that they can beat any team in the league," Robinson said. Penn's performance bodes well for the future, as next year, the Midshipmen will lose their top diver. After finishing second-to-last in the league last year, the Quakers have propelled themselves into the top half of the standings. "The guys knew Navy would bury us in diving and be more comfortable in meters, but they didn't use any of those excuses," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "They responded to the challenge, and made it a point to go after every single event and score as many points as they could."