SEASON PREVIEW: W. Swimming to dive into season together

Penn swimmers feel there is less individuality and more team camaraderie on this year's squad. Swimming traditionally is a sport of individual accomplishments and breaking personal records. For the Penn women's swimming team, however, it is all about team, as in teamwork -- a unit that achieves together and places scoring points above breaking individual records. "The team idea was effectively put into place by our two co-captains (senior Christie Meyer and junior Alycia Kaufman). They embraced the competition given by our new swimmers instead of looking at them as rivals. I was glad to see that because we will need them to show that kind of leadership to our young swimmers," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert said. The young swimmers that Lawlor-Gilbert mentioned are the 18 freshmen and sophomores who make up the largest group of underclassmen in the history of Penn women's swimming. "Some freshmen have already established themselves as the most talented team members. That means that in addition to being one of the strongest teams in the last three of four years, we also have one of the youngest," said Penn assistant coach Mike Schnur, who captained the 1987-88 Quakers under the coaching of Lawlor-Gilbert. While swimming at its highest level tends to be an individual sport where athletes push themselves to achieve personal-best times, the same is not necessarily true for colleges. Lawlor-Gilbert, who has been in the swimming circuit for over 20 years, stresses teamwork because it is what often produces results in college. "If we get first place in a certain race and the other team gets second, third and fourth, it pretty much negates the win. We have to avoid getting swamped like that this year," Lawlor-Gilbert said. Sophomore Jen Walsh, Penn's most successful swimmer at last year's Eastern Championships with an eighth-place finish in the 100 butterfly, buys into the team philosophy completely. "Swimming is more of an individual sport than most sports," Walsh said. "I know it's a different thing in college for me. In high school, I swam on a club team and not for my school. When you are on a club team, it is so much more individual than it is here. When you are at a meet here, you want to get a best time but that's not the main thing. It comes down to how you place. Even if you don't get a best time and place second, you still have to be happy. It's a lot more team-oriented. Everyone is a lot closer. I like it a lot better." And when people like things better, they usually tend to do better. The Red and Blue are certainly looking to do better than last year's 3-9 overall (0-7 Ivy League) record. To do better, the coaches and team members will have to overcome factors they cannot control and conquer those they can control. "We have some sick and injured freshmen right now," said Schnur. Sickness and injury cannot be controlled, and in that regard, the team just has to hope for the best. Another uncontrollable factor is that the team will have no home meets this season. This means that Penn will swim every race in hostile territory while trying to acclimatize some underclassmen to playing leading roles. The controllable part, which involves hard practice, individual attention, and commitment is where the improvement will come. "I have noticed a visible energy in the interval practice swims, which only forecasts good competitive swims," said Lawlor-Gilbert. Challenges like dedication and commitment, are not the only ones that Penn will have to achieve for success. Less amorphous challenges, like those posed by the seven other Ivies and the other colleges the Quakers will face. Brown, which has a hotshot 500-yard freestyle swimmer, according to Lawlor-Gilbert, is the preseason favorite to bag the Ivy title along with Princeton and Yale. Penn will only face these teams after spring semester begins, however, so the Quakers have time before they attempt to exact revenge for last year's setbacks. "Our focus meets are all after the [winter] break, when we have Easterns and dual meets with Dartmouth and Rutgers. But right now, we are looking at the La Salle Invitational on the first weekend in December," said Schnur. Both Lawlor-Gilbert and Schnur have won enough as both swimmers and coaches to know what to expect. "I am thrilled about our great young swimmers but I will be better able to gauge my girls after I see them in competition," said Lawlor-Gilbert. After last year's disappointing last-place finish in the Ivy League, the Quakers have nothing to lose. The variables seem to be in place, and the attitude of both the coaches and the athletes at practice is very encouraging. Lawlor-Gilbert especially has worked hard to have a close relationship with her swimmers and she will provide motivation, but how each individual swimmer responds to her challenge will determine the fate of the team as a whole.