M. Swimming relaxes with teammates in win

and Kim Voight The men's swimming team made a splash last night in Sheerr Pool against Swarthmore. The Quakers dominated the meet with a final score of 177 to 63. Swarthmore, a Division III school, attributed its loss partly to the fact that it was swimming at a higher level than normal. "We had more than our share of competition," Swarthmore coach Sue Davis said. "We swam two divisions above where we belong." Although they moved quite a few swimmers out of their normal races, the Quakers swept the top three places in more than half of the events. "We moved people around and tried new things," Penn coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert. "We swam surprisingly well and had a lot of fun." Penn viewed this meet as an information session. It showed the team's versatility and ability to compete under unusual circumstances. The success of this meet might also be attributable to Penn's attitude. The swimmers were excited to be swimming in new events and went in with the confidence to win. The fact that both the men's and women's teams were able to compete simultaneously added to the energy that prevailed throughout the meet. "It was cool to swim as one with the girls," senior captain Graham Rigby said. "We practice with them every day and hang out with them all the time, but [we] rarely get to compete at the same time." The two Quakers teams were unified through every event, standing at the side of the pool and on the blocks, shouting, cheering and waving each other on. "The guys and the girls were very supportive of each other and had a lot of fun as a group," Lawlor-Gilbert said. The Quakers met an unusual fate last night, as many swimmers finished first in events in which they do not typically compete. Penn racked up 11 first place performances, including wins in the 200 meter medley relay and the 200 meter free relay. The Quakers' strong freshmen contingent swam particularly stellar races. Chris Hollweg placed first in the 100 meter freestyle with a time of 50.83 seconds and contributed to the win in the 200 meter freestyle relay. That relay team finished with a time of 1:32.09. Hollweg's classmate Dave Griffith won the 50 meter freestyle, clocking in at 22.99 seconds. Griffith was also a part of the winning 200 meter freestyle relay team. But the freshmen were not the only ones winning their events. The competition commenced with a first place in the 200 meter medley relay, which was swum by sophomores Matt Bissonette, Sean Perschy, Brian Barone and Alfred Kong. Other winners included sophomores Vincent Connors (200 freestyle) and Ben Schmidt (100 backstroke) and freshman Gabe Tompkins (200 butterfly). But the victories didn't stop there. The Quakers kept swimming strongly throughout the entire meet. Additional first places were captured by junior Craig Nelson (200 back), freshman Ian Bowman (500 free), senior captain Paul Poggi (100 fly) and junior Matt Reilly (200 individual medley). The team hopes that their performance last night is an indication of how they will do this weekend at the LaSalle Invitational, which has been a major focus in practice. Yesterday, the team had a full workout prior to its match with Swarthmore. It plans on training hard the rest of the week in preparation for Friday and Saturday. "It's going to be a long and hard meet, with people swimming lots of events," Rigby said. "How we do will be a good indication of what shape we are in and what we need to work on for the dual season." "We managed a second place last year," sophomore Matt Dicker said. "Hopefully we can train hard all week and win this year."