M. Swimming hopes for a top-four finish at Easterns

Even though personal times are the priority, Penn knows Harvard in unbeatable. After six months of hard training and two weeks of rest, the Penn men's swimming team will hit the water at the Eastern Championships this morning, hoping to come up with a slew of season-best performances. While Penn will get most of its points from a handful of top swimmers, the rest of the 17-man roster must grab points along the way in order for the team to challenge for a top-four finish. Coming off a sixth-place finish one year ago, Penn argues that its focus is directed toward its individual finishing times. When the meet starts, Penn will be scoreboard watching, but in pre-meet interviews both coaches and swimmers downplayed the importance of team place, saying they just hope everyone swims their best. "If everyone swims the way they are capable of, that will make a good meet," Penn senior Jon Levine said. "The place and the points will take care of themselves. We are going to go all-out in the morning and then go all-out even faster at night." "They sure looked good yesterday. They are very ready to swim," said assistant coach Mike Schnur. "How you swim at Easterns is determined by the first six months of the season, and they've worked hard. They've rehearsed all the right things, and they've done everything the right way." One Quaker who will take care of a lot of points is senior co-captain Jeff Brown. Swimming in three individual events and four relays, Brown will be counted on, as he has been all year, to come up with first-place finishes in his events. Other Quakers who figure prominently will be freestylers Ryan Kafer and Ken Fletcher and freshman backstroker Matt Reilly. A win by one or more of them is needed to put the Quakers in position to capture third or fourth. Penn may run into difficulty because points are awarded to swimmers in each event all the way down to 16th place. The top Quakers swimmer in each event has an opportunity to grab a high finish, but Penn's second- and third-tier swimmers have struggled against the EISL's best teams' reserve swimmers. With points being awarded left and right like cheap frequent-flier miles, Penn will need swimmers to swipe points from their league rivals. "In order to do well, you really have to have a lot of people score points," Schnur said. "You've got to have a very deep team. Our top guys, we know what they are going to do." Fortunately, fans at the meet should be entertained by close team results for third through 10th place because the top two places were decided about 15 years ago. Only some sort of Tonya Harding-esque freak accident would stop nationally-ranked Harvard from winning Easterns. Even Princeton, which like Greg Norman is stuck in second place, readily admits that they will spend more time watching their tails then they will trying to catch the Crimson. "I anticipate Harvard walking away with it," Tigers coach C. Rob Orr said. "Depth-wise they are fairly deep. There will be some close battles but if we do what we are capable of [we'll finish second]. At least I hope so, but you never know." Princeton's home-pool advantage will make anything less than a second place finish a disappointment, but the team order after that is tough to handicap. Navy looks to have an edge due to its overwhelming strength in diving which it used to knock off Penn in their dual meet, but Quakers freshman Kyle Goldbacher has looked much-improved in the month since that meet and should challenge the Midshipmen for league supremacy. Ten schools, three days and 21 events will add up to a climactic finish to the Quakers' season. Harvard and Princeton will continue their two-decade hegemony, but Penn has the opportunity to continue its rise up the league ranks.

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