Penn to relax in last meet

Former Quaker Steve Kuster returns as a Harvard assistant coach. This Saturday, when Harvard visits the Penn men's swimming team at Sheerr Pool, there will be plenty of time for hellos and goodbyes because there will be little in the way of competition to disrupt the festivities. Saturday marks the final home meet for Penn's five graduating seniors and the first return visit of former Quakers All-American Steve Kuster, who is now an assistant coach at Harvard. The five graduating seniors will have a relaxing meet to finish off their career. They will get a chance to swim alternative events and get some rest for most of the meet, but will end the meet together as four of them swim as a team in the 200-yard freestyle relay. It will mark one of the few times in their careers that they will compete as a group. "There are certainly better scenarios our class could have for a final meet," Penn senior Jon Levine said. "We are all focused on Easterns --that's our one goal. [Swimming as a relay] should be fun. We will have more of a fun time with it than anything else." With the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League championships beginning a week from Thursday, the top swimmers on both sides will not compete in their stronger events, but will rest their bodies by swimming in alternative races. They might as well pull out the lane lines and have a water fight since fast times and tight races will be unlikely Saturday as neither team is putting any emphasis on their performance. "It's a difficult meet to focus on because Easterns are in a week and a half," assistant coach Mike Schnur said. "It is a league meet and another opportunity to compete, but we don't care what Harvard does." It's probably just as well that the Quakers don't care if they win or lose against the Crimson because they are nearly assured to lose. Harvard is ranked in the top 20 nationally and will still feature a strong team despite rearranging their swimming lineup. "The outcome of this meet is not in doubt and we know who's going to win," Schnur said. "It's difficult to get up for a competition where you're not going to win. The objective for Saturday is to swim some off events for our Eastern team, and for our men who are not going to Easterns this is their last meet of the season." While most of the swimmers frolic, two groups of swimmers will be trying to keep their focus on competing well. One group is those Quakers who did not qualify for the Eastern traveling team, and the other is a handful of Harvard men who are still trying to qualify for their league championship squad. "We are still trying to figure out who we are taking to Easterns," Kuster said. "There are guys we need to swim some things, but our top guys will swim in off events. There are people focusing on different things, but we are trying to sell to the team that this is the last opportunity to swim before Easterns." Kuster hopes however that none of his swimmers goes fast enough take down any of the four pool records which he currently holds. Kuster was an All-Eastern league and All-American swimmer while at Penn from 1989 to 1991 and in 1993. Kuster took a year off from school in 1992 to train for the Olympic Trials. "I think it will be kind of neat to be back at the place where I spent four years," Kuster said. "Other than the results that have crossed by my desk I haven't seen much of [Penn] this year. It'll definitely be a little different perspective being back as a coach." Penn's current coach, Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert, was also Kuster's coach and ranked Kuster as one of the best to ever come through Penn. "He did what I asked him. You can't ask for anything more," Lawlor-Gilbert said. With the oncoming Eastern championships taking away the focus from their meet against Harvard, Penn will use the meet to thank their seniors for what they have given the program, and watch some of their non-championship team swimmers finish off their seasons. It will be a day of fun before getting back to serious preparation for league championships.

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