W. Swimming can't surface against Navy

Navy handled the Penn men's swimming team with ease in Annapolis. When a swimmer dives into the water at the start of a race, he remains submerged for a short time before finally rising to the surface and beginning the race. The Penn men's swimming team performed in a similar way Saturday afternoon as they allowed Navy to get ahead in the first half of the meet before surfacing with closer racing in the meet's second half. That was not enough for the Quakers (2-5, 1-5 Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League) as the Midshipmen (7-1, 6-1 EISL) still came out with a lopsided 177-62 victory in Annapolis, Md. "[Navy] caught us a little flat-footed in the first part of the meet," Quakers captain Colin Robinson said. "Once we got our heads on straight and realized that some guys were just walking around and not really concentrating, we swam well the rest of the meet." One of the events that led to Penn's improvement in the second half of the meet was Robinson's performance in the 200 meter butterfly with a time of 2:08.71. Robinson's finish in this event, in which Quakers freshman Brian Barone finished second, was the only victory for the Quakers among the meet's 13 events. As team captain, Robinson used the team's performance early in the meet as his motivation for the 200 butterfly. "We got shellacked in the first part of the meet, and I was a little angry," Robinson said. "I wanted to get a good swim in, so I was happy with that," he said. Quakers coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert was also pleased with Robinson's swim in the 200 fly, noting that his time was extremely fast, especially considering that the Navy pool is measured in meters, not yards. Lawlor-Gilbert also recognized diver Kyle Goldbacher as one of the meet's top performers. Goldbacher was able to finish second in the one-meter event against the Navy divers, who usually dominate the Eastern championships. "Navy divers are usually 1-2 almost everyone they dive against, so Goldbacher getting second in the one meter was very good diving," Lawlor-Gilbert said. Although Lawlor-Gilbert was pleased with the performance of Robinson and Goldbacher, she knew that her team would have difficulty against the Midshipmen. "We were on the road, we were a little fatigued, and we knew that Navy has dominated almost everyone in the league. We had our hands full," Lawlor-Gilbert said. Despite a losing record in the EISL thus far, the Quakers are still looking forward to the rest of the season, which will continue Saturday with a double dual meet against Dartmouth (1-6, 0-4) and Yale (7-1, 3-1). "These losses can be a good wake-up call for guys to swim better and tougher," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "I think they'll bounce back this Saturday." With several more EISL meets ahead, it is time for the Penn men swimmers to emerge from the water and begin racing.