Improving Quakers host Navy in W. Swimming

The latest installment of the Penn women's swimming team's good news-bad news season is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. At 3 p.m., the Navy Midshipmen will visit Sheerr Pool for the Quakers' final non-Ivy dual meet this season. The good news is that Penn is improving every week with five weeks still remaining before the season's most important event, the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships. The bad news for Penn (2-4) is that the improvements have resulted only in smaller margins of defeat. Last Saturday at Army, Brown racked up 193 points against the Quakers. However, it marked the first time that Penn held the Bears under 200 points in four years. "Well, Brown is the league champion," Penn assistant coach Michael Schnur said. "We're not going to beat them [at this point] and they showed that last week. But we put up more points on them than we have in a long time. We improved very much." That improvement has been due, in part, to the Quakers' intensive training regimen over the past month. Over winter break, the team traveled to Miami for workouts; since returning, the load of practice has yet to lighten. The reason Penn has not been resting is the makeup of the schedule. Since the turn of the calendar, the Quakers have faced two non-league opponents -- Drexel and Army -- plus the league's best team. Having not won an Ivy meet since 1993, the Quakers were well advised to concentrate on those Ancient Eight battles which follow Navy on the schedule. "We've got a lot of women who have done their best times and haven't rested at all," Schnur said. "It's leading up to some very good things at the end of the year." Navy (6-3) will come to West Philadelphia with some very good things already happening. The Midshipmen, who swim in the Patriot League, are coming off of a 180-118 triumph over Lehigh -- the Engineers' only loss of the season. Like their hosts, Navy has a large, fast group of freshmen. Unlike the Quakers, the Midshipmen will come to Sheerr Pool with very good upperclass depth, as well as a full complement of divers. An interesting battle of youth against experience should come in the shorter breaststroke events. Penn's April Fletcher will line up against Navy senior Julia Mason, who swam the 100-meter event in 1:14.92 at last week's meet against the Engineers. The 100-yard freestyle, meanwhile, will be a battle of rising freshman stars. Devin McGlynn will try to continue her impressive freshman campaign while Adriana Westerbeke is one of Navy's top rookies. The day's most exciting event, however, may be the 200-yard individual medley. Against Drexel, Quakers sophomore Cathy Holland swam a 2:16.47. That time is almost the exact same overall speed (1.54 yards per second) which Navy freshman Melissa Hawley swam against Lehigh. Hawley clocked 2:25.63 in 200 meters of individual medley . Should the Quakers' improvement continue, they may surprise Navy tomorrow, but Penn's main concern remains the end of the season. "If we have 18 swimmers who are swimming their best times at the end of the year," Schnur said, "then we're going to do well as a team."