M. Swimming lands in middle of pack

Penn shows its mettle at La Salle all-day meet. There's a little, friendly-looking blip on the Penn men's swimming team's (2-1) schedule. It reads: "December 4-5, at La Salle Invitational: All Day." It should've been a nice break from the dual meets going into winter break. The weekend was anything but a nice break for the Quakers. The team's hard work continued to pay dividends, however, as it finished third in the six-team field. "I thought that they swam very well," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert said. "It's a marathon, from about 6:30 in the morning until 8:00 at night straight through -- except for when the milers swam from about 1:30 to 3:30, and that's when all the teams could get something to eat. I thought that they stayed tough throughout." Penn's swimmers actually finished second to the host Explorers at the meet, but a strong performance from Drexel's divers -- who far outnumbered their Quaker counterparts -- catapulted the Dragons into the number two spot for the weekend. Penn's Market Street neighbors also happen to be the first visitors the Quakers will host at Sherr Pool in 1999. "We know Drexel's strengths and weaknesses now," Penn captain Brian Cohen said. "We saw what they could do with a shaved team, but we don't know how they're going to do when they're not rested. We're going to take that meet against Drexel pretty seriously, and I think we'll be able to win." Penn's swimmers have not been resting, and they were not shaved for this weekend's event. Much of the competition, including Drexel, did shave for the La Salle Invitational. The Quakers, however, are concentrating more on their dual meets, and used their trip to 20th Street as a springboard into their winter training session. "It's a tough meet to swim because the teams that we swim against are all shaved and rested for this meet, and we don't rest -- it's not one of our big meets," Cohen said. "We use it to stay in shape and to stay tough, but we don't expect personal bests at this meet. We swim it to show that we're a tough team, especially at this point of the season." So far this season, the Quakers do not look like they know that only five Penn squads have finished with winning records since World War II. Her team's performance, however, is not surprising to the ever-optimistic Lawlor-Gilbert. "I'm the type of person who never says never, and I think that this team is like that too," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "One thing at a time, one meet at a time. It's just like I said when we were going after Cornell [a meet which Penn won to open the season]. And they've shown some real grit -- real deep down resolve to swim tough."