M. Swimming hopes to put injuries, illness behind in 1997

In the fall of 1996, the Quakers were plagued with several setbacks. When the Penn men's swimming team returns for the second semester, they will finally be ready to swim in competition again. With any luck, they will be strong and healthy and ready for some stiff competition, even though that has not been the case for the first semester. First came the injuries. Minor as they were, it was enough to cause the Quakers to go on without a full team. The second round was more serious. Mononucleosis (Ken Fletcher), the flu (Jeff Brown, among others) and a slew of other maladies plagued a number of the squad's top swimmers. Throughout the ordeal, however, coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert and the team kept a positive view, consistently hoping that by their next meet the team would be whole. But it just didn't go their way, as the calendar year ended with a loss to Yale. "They learned how to swim sick and tough, but it would certainly have been to our advantage to not have been sick," said Lawlor-Gilbert in reference to the Yale defeat. The Quakers were only one point behind in the swimming events, but the loss was significantly increased by diving, in which two of Penn's divers were out ill. "One diver can only do so much," Lawlor-Gilbert said. As disappointing as the loss was to the team, they cannot deny the benefits of the meet and the hardships they faced. "It hurt a lot, but I think we proved several things," said co-captain Colin Robinson. "One is that we will be a team to contend with next year, and the other is that we are resilient, that we swim tough because at the Colgate Invitational the guys had to step up to the blocks a lot of times over the course of a day and a half." The coach and captain both agreed that it was the leadership of the upperclassmen that kept the team together through the semester. "While the freshmen learned what the dual meets were all about, the upperclass showed a real base of confidence," Robinson said. As for next year, the team will be looking forward to getting well and training hard. Starting January 11, the team will have a meet every weekend with no breaks. "We have a long tome now to get in our best training to come back in second semester great," Robinson said. Lawlor-Gilbert is focusing on the team's attitude in the upcoming year. "They need to be renewed, and prepared to be single-minded for the competition ahead," she said. "We have a mixed bag of competition coming up -- some teams are deep, some are talented but not deep, and some are strong in only the free and diving. We can't look at any as a breeze." As for the final ranking, the team does have a chance to finish third in the league, but only if they get a little help in the form of another team beating Yale.