M. Swimming not surprised by loss

Saturday went just as expected for the Penn and Harvard athletic departments. While Penn disposed of the Crimson on the basketball court, it was a different story for the schools at Blodgett Pool in Cambridge, Mass. Entering into the Harvard dual meet, the Penn men's swimming team did not expect to win. For this reason, the 233-65 loss to the first place team in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League was not a surprise. "We got killed, but we expected to lose," Penn senior captain Colin Robinson said. "It was really nothing special, basically just a long road trip." Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert echoed the views of her captain. "It was just an uneventful meet," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "I couldn't manufacture a story out of it if I tried." While the competition between Penn (4-7, 3-7 EISL) and Harvard (9-2, 8-1) was very one-sided, there were some bright spots for the Quakers. Several swimmers, although they did not win their events, swam well enough to improve their seeds for the Eastern championship meet in two weeks. Lawlor-Gilbert recognized freshman Ben Schmidt, who finished second in the 400 yard individual medley, as one of these performers. "Some people did improve their Eastern seed time, which is what we use this meet for," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "Ben Schmidt did almost a lifetime best and improved his seed time considerably." Another bright spot for the Red and Blue was diver Kyle Goldbacher whose victory in one-meter diving was the only first place finish of the meet for the Quakers. This meet also allowed the sophomore to take some of his dives from a diving tower. Although he dove from a tower at the Navy meet, Goldbacher was the only diver to use the tower this time. Despite having minimal success in the pool, Penn was not upset with the results of the meet. The swimmers' conditioning of the two teams seemed to favor Harvard. While the Quakers were sluggish after beginning the tapering process a few days earlier, many of the Harvard swimmers were fresh, shaved and swimming in their top events. The Quakers have entered the taper in order to prepare for Easterns. While tapering, swimmers reduce their daily yardage in small increments at practice. Also, the Quakers have stopped lifting weights and are now performing more speed-oriented workouts. Although this process will have Penn prepared for Easterns, it did cause some tiredness for the Harvard dual meet. "We were in our fourth day of rest," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "When you start rest, a lot of the time, you are not really crisp and not swimming as well as you will once the rest all kicks in." The tapering will continue until Easterns and by that time, the Quakers should be ready to swim their best. Although they still may not be able to compete with teams like Harvard, perhaps the results will not be so lopsided.

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