Meyer and Price set best times, but W. Swimming falls

Although the Penn women's swimming team lost to Navy on Friday, many of the Quakers swam their personal bests of this season. Penn is using some of the earlier meets to prepare for the more challenging ones later in the season. The team's tenacity and steady improvement since winter break have proved their potential. "Navy women were tough, but we swam well," freshman Heather Wilder said. "Notable efforts were put in by many swimmers, especially sophomore Gretchen Price, who won the 1000-meter freestyle, warding off Navy's best all the way." Price's teammates believe that her victory was long overdue. Over the past two years, she has been training hard, but it was not paying off. On Friday, however, Price clocked her best time since she has been at Penn. Fellow freshman Jenn Walsh fought her way through the 200-meter butterfly and was just touched-out for first place. Walsh has been suffering from severe shoulder problems all season, but she nonetheless held her stroke steady and managed to pull out a time of 2 minutes, 12 seconds. Quakers co-captain Christy Meyer also swam her best time for the 200-meter breaststroke. "Overall, as a team, it was not a bad meet, but the point score doesn't reflect how we swam," Meyer said. "It seemed like it was a lot closer -- it definitely wasn't a blowout. "A lot of girls were able to ignore Navy's intimidation and swam really good times for this part of the season. Many people just won't give up -- each meet they beat their best times. The Red and Blue had strong performances in diving as well. Navy had two very experienced divers, but the performances by Penn sophomore Johanna Minich and freshman Ruthie Rowbatham showed how much improvement the two have made this season. Minich got third place on the one-meter and second place on three-meter. Rowbatham finished fourth on both boards. Rowbatham and Minich have been the only Penn divers at the last two meets. Both of them have been getting consistently better, and have had no relapses. According to Minich, Rowbatham, who placed second in the one-meter in last weekend's meet against Brown, is making huge improvements and learning new dives. "Everyone seemed to race well," freshman Jamie Taylor said. "The further away from Christmas training we are, the better we have been swimming, and the better we will swim. This week we have a lot of big meets -- like Columbia -- that we are very excited about." Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert opted to have a men's line-up, meaning there were fewer events, to help her team focus on the meet at Rutgers on Wednesday.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.