W. Swimming raises level at competitive Colgate Invitational

Personal bests are not enough to life Quakers over Ivy favorite Yale, who won the invitational. The women's swimming team had a strong showing at the the Colgate Invitational last weekend. The competition was stiff, and it was the biggest competition that the Quakers had faced all year. Yale, considered a contender for the title of NCAA champion, was especially challenging, but Penn put up a good fight. Additionally, the cut-throat battle between the Penn and Yale men's teams intensified the entire atmosphere of the meet. The swimmers felt that this charged competition led to better swims all around. A lot of races were really close and Yale certainly did not blow the Quakers out of the water, although they finished first in the meet. The Invitational was broken into three sessions, one on Friday and two on Saturday. The way this meet is structured, four women per team swim in each event. With four teams competing this makes for two heats of eight per event. Friday night began with freshmen Dani Joslin and sophomore Lauren Hibbert swimming in the first heat of the 1650-yard freestyle. The mile is a particularly grueling event that requires much strength and stamina. Joslin does not consider this one of her best events, but held up well amidst tough competition. Hibbert, who used to be a breaststroker, swam the event for the first time. She had suffered a knee injury and because the breaststroke kick involves so much bending of the knee, she was forced to swim new events. "[Hibbert] hung in strong for the first 500 yards with two very good, very experienced distance swimmers from Yale," said sophomore Kelly James. "It's hard to be brave in the face of a new event, especially the mile, but Lauren went out after it and that's what it takes to swim fast." Freshmen Jamie Taylor and sophomore Gretchen Price swam the second heat of the mile. These two have proved dependable in distance events and, as usual, didn't fail to turn in strong, tough performances. Taylor, in fact, placed second. The mile was followed by the 400-yard individual medley. The 400 IM, also a distance event dependent upon endurance, was swum by sophomores Kelly James and Lauren Wald, and freshmen Jen Walsh and Heather Wilder. The four turned in good performances and were generally pleased with their swims. James recorded a personal best time (4:50) in an event she doesn't often get to swim. The second day was a lot more intense. The whole team competed in two two-hour sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning session consisted of six events, covering all four strokes and a relay. The freshmen performed particularly well. Jen Walsh placed second in the 200 butterfly, Caroline Shipps placed second in the 50 freestyle, and Jamie Taylor placed third in the 500 free and fourth in the 100 free. The afternoon session included six events as well -- the 200 free relay, 200 free, 100 fly, 200 breast, 100 back, 200 IM, and 800 free relay. Freshman Jen Walsh placed second in the 100 fly. Shipps placed third in the 100 freestyle and the medley relay team of Lauren Ballough, Alycia Kaufman, Kelly James, and Caroline Shipps fared well, too. "Our relays were notably good with many individuals swimming beyond what they may have thought they were capable of in individual events," James said. Although fatigue was starting to show by the end of Saturday's events, the Quakers didn't let up. They swam strong until the last event of the day, the 800 free relay. In fact some swimmers even had one of their strongest swims of the meet in that relay. "Although [the Invitational] was rough and seemed really long, I think we were ready to go for it and we swam well," freshman Heather Wilder said. "Some were disappointed with their swims, and some weren't, but overall it showed that the team was strong and that we have a great shot at swimming fast once we are shaved and tapered at the end of the season."