M. Swimming hosts Brown

As the Penn men's swimming team enters the second half of its season, the Quakers are focusing themselves on the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) rivals that lie ahead. After last week's defeat of non-conference rival Rutgers, the Quakers begin the run to the Eastern Championships with a double dual meet against Brown and Army tomorrow at 3 p.m. at Sheerr Pool. Returning for its first meet following the winter break, Penn (2-2, 1-2 EISL) handed the Scarlet Knights (2-4) a 177-116 defeat last Saturday. The Quakers were pleased with their performance against Rutgers, especially because they had not swam in a meet in over a month. "We swam well and had some very good races," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert said. "From the sprinters through the middle distance swimmers to the distance swimmers, they knew what we needed to do." Two of those swimmers who knew what the team needed were sophomores Jon Maslow and Matt Reilly. Maslow took first place in both the 100 freestyle and the 100 butterfly, and Reilly was the winner of the 100 and 200 backstroke. "If I had to choose an outstanding performer for our team, it would be Matt Reilly," 15th-year coach Lawlor-Gilbert said. Also contributing to Penn's win was diver Kyle Goldbacher, who won the three-meter event and finished second in the one-meter. Despite his placing, Goldbacher was not pleased with his performance. "It was a relaxed atmosphere, because the swimming team didn't need my points to win," Goldbacher said. "But I wasn't too happy with my diving. My first two dives, which are usually my best, were my two worst." Although his diving against Rutgers was not up to his usual standard, Goldbacher believes it did help him prepare for tomorrow's meet. This meet will feature the Army divers, who were Goldbacher's main competition at last year's Easterns, and two new divers from Brown. Goldbacher is not sure what to expect from Brown's two new divers. "One is a freshman who stayed back to repeat senior year of high school or something, and the other is, like, 24 years old, but I've never seen either of them dive," he said. Although Goldbacher does not know what to expect from the divers, Lawlor-Gilbert expects the meet to be very tough. "It will be wild having three teams at a dual meet," she said. "We just must focus on one event at a time." Last season, the Quakers defeated Brown (1-2, 1-1) but lost to Army (3-5, 0-5) in two extremely close meets. Lawlor-Gilbert believes her swimmers focused well against Rutgers, and that focusing will be key this weekend. "A lot of teams tend to focus but have the rest of the season in the back of their minds," she said. "We need to focus on every meet and every event." After a winter break in which the swimmers worked out four or five hours each day after returning to campus December 29, the Quakers will focus on every dual meet before they reach their main goal, the championships in March. This road begins tomorrow as the Quakers focus on beating two of their Eastern rivals.