W. Swimming needs miracle at Easterns

The Penn women's swimming team will travel to Harvard tomorrow for the second time this month to take on the Crimson. The only difference between this visit and the last, however, is that tomorrow all the other Ancient Eight teams will also be present to contend for the Ivy Championships. While Penn (1-10, 0-7 Ivy League) has fared quite poorly in dual meets this season, all hope is not yet lost. In the La Salle Invitational in December, which was Penn's only non-dual meet, the Quakers placed second out of nine teams. A lot has happened since December and although the Quakers have remained winless since, they are brimming with confidence for tomorrow because they swim well in a tournament format. Like the La Salle Invitational, tomorrow's championship meet will last four days, with two or more heats for nearly every event. "The women are swimming fast and tapered. They are looking to break lifetime best times and the rest period they have had should help a lot to improve times and finishes," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert said. The usual point-earners for the Quakers, co-captains Christie Meyer and Lauren Hibbert, Jen Walsh and freshman Cathy Holland, will have to step up their performances like they did at La Salle. Holland had two first place finishes at La Salle and has a win in nearly every meet the Quakers have had this season. Both Meyer and Hibbert have contributed points in every meet as well. Walsh, who was the highest point scorer for Penn at last year's Eastern Invitationals, recorded best times of 58.3 seconds and 2:08.1 in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly, respectively, at last year's championships. She is expected by coaches to finish in the top three in the fly events this weekend. "We can't be beaten out at the end of races because we didn't finish aggressively," Hibbert said. "It is too far into the season for mental mistakes like that. "We have worked on our starts and strokes and looked forward to this meet all season. This meet format suited us well earlier and since we have had a lot of time to prepare, we should swim fast." The coaches have stressed the importance of the Ivy Championship meet since the beginning of the season. But after two disappointing defeats against Dartmouth and Rutgers in the two focus dual meets of the season, one may wonder whether the Quakers can perform under pressure. "We have to forget about the losses we had this season," Hibbert said. "We swam well enough and have not lost confidence. It is hard to stay motivated when you don't win, but we try our hardest and have a lot of fun. Staying motivated is much easier when you have a good time swimming." The skeptics may want to write off Penn for the Ivy Championships following the logic that if you cannot beat any Ivy teams individually, you have no hope of competing when you face them together. The Quakers are definitely underdogs for the Ivy Championships, but then they are accustomed to relegation. Penn believes it can add a new chapter to the great upset stories of NCAA athletics.