W. Swimming does a split in New Brunswick

Last night, the Penn women's swimming team faced Rutgers and Columbia at the Scarlet Athletic Club. Columbia was the overall winner, beating the Quakers (175-124) and Rutgers (176-123). The Red and Blue won against Rutgers (161.5-137.5), but still have just one more chance -- against Harvard -- to achieve a league win. At last weekend's meet against Navy, Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert wanted the team to focus on preparing for yesterday's meet rather than on beating Navy. The Quakers had hoped to beat Columbia, but were unsuccessful. Although Penn may have more depth, Columbia has a few phenomenal swimmers whose times are substantially better than those of its competitors. In the 1,000-meter freestyle, Columbia's Molly Conroy and Megan Hast beat Jamie Taylor, Penn's third-place finisher, by nine and seven seconds, respectively. Similarly, the Lions' Rachel Strong beat Penn's first finisher, Kelly James, by four seconds. Columbia Olympian Christina Teuscher, however, was the most impressive. Teuscher placed first in both events she swam. In the 500-freestyle the second-place finisher, Penn's Taylor, was seven seconds behind her. In the 200-freestyle Teuscher was five seconds faster than her closest competitor, the Quakers' Jen Triolo. "With an Olympic medalist [Teuscher] competing for them, Columbia was hard to beat, but we fought it out until the last relay, which Penn took easily," Penn freshman Heather Wilder said. "This was our toughest showing yet -- defeating a Division I team without having rested and going into a stretch of three meets in five days. We're looking forward to [Johns] Hopkins and Harvard this weekend." The Quakers have been improving their times in each of the last few races, and had looked forward to their first league win. Although they were unable to achieve this feat, the younger members on the team, especially the freshmen, really stepped up their performance last night. Freshman Jenn Walsh placed first in the 200-butterfly, second in the 200-individual medley and third in the 100-butterfly. Of the whole team, the Quakers thought that Walsh had the best performance yesterday. Caroline Shipps took second in the 50-freestyle, and third in the 100-freestyle. Wilder placed third in both the 200-IM and the 200-breaststroke. Finally, Taylor placed second in the 500-freestyle and third in the 1000-freestyle. The Quakers' sophomores performed well, too. Triolo placed second in the 200-freestyle, recording her best time all year. Johanna Minich placed second in the 3-meter dive and won the overall diving competition. Alycia Kaufman finished second in the 100-breaststroke, and first in the 200-breaststroke. "Our best event was the 400-freestyle relay," Penn co-captain Christy Meyer said. "Caroline [Shipps], Alycia [Kaufman], Jenn [Triolo], and Jamie [Taylor] were awesome. They each swam to the best of their ability and it didn't bother them that no one was left to see them. Triolo even beat her best 100-meter split of this year. The four of them wanted to swim their best time, and had an incredible lead [four seconds] over the other competitors." Despite the Quakers' strong performances, they were yet again unable to achieve a league win. The strength of the younger team members, however, is an indication that Penn might have a better chance in the future. Penn has two home meets this weekend. On Friday at 4 p.m. they face Johns Hopkins. Sunday at noon marks the Quakers' last chance for a league win this season.