Quakers looking for revenge, first win

Get out those bull's eyes, it's target practice time. With only four meets left in the season, the Penn women's swimming team is aiming at three of them. Today, the Quakers (0-7) set their sights on Johns Hopkins, and after a near miss last year, Penn plans to hit the mark directly this time around. "We have a little bit of a score to settle [with them]," Penn assistant coach Mike Schnur said. Almost a year ago to the day, Penn and the Division III Blue Jays tied, 111-111, at Sheerr Pool. After falling behind at the beginning of the meet, the Quakers slowly came back to create a tie in the very last event – the 200-yard freestyle relay. The meet-deciding race was decided during the last two legs, filled by sophomore Christie Meyer and senior captain Alison Zegar. "We are going to prove to Johns Hopkins that we could have beat them last year," Meyer said. "We are going to beat them this year." Last year, the Quakers lost primarily because no divers showed up. Although one swimmer volunteered to compete in the 1-meter dive, no one climbed up to the 3-meter board, an event which could have given Penn the points to win. Despite its Division III status, Johns Hopkins has some excellent swimmers. Junior Shayne Pierce is very strong in the 100 and 200 backstrokes, and senior Ann Girvin has competed in the Division III NCAA championships in the 100 butterfly the past three years. "They have been conference champions six out of the last nine years," Schnur said. "The Centennial Conference is probably the best Division III conference." But according to Schnur, Penn expects to win. "Hopkins is very similar to what they were last year in terms of team ability. We are a whole lot better than we were." Sunday, the Quakers are putting down their bows as they travel to Cambridge to compete against Ivy-powerhouse Harvard. The Crimson is tied for first place in the Ancient Eight and to defeat them would be as hard as splitting an arrow. According to Schnur, Penn has the chance to win some individual races. But overall, the Crimson are too deep and powerful for the Quakers to realistically step out of the pool victorious. "We are not going to win the meet," Schnur said. Next week, the Quakers will go back on the warpath against Swarthmore and Army. Adding some numbers to an empty win column could give Penn the confidence it needs for Easterns at the end of the month. "We have four meets left in the season, and we're going to target three out of four of them," Schnur said. Hopefully, the Quakers will hit their mark.