M. Swimmers fall on the road

and Kim Voight Despite sound performances by several Quakers, Brown and Army emerged victorious over the Penn men's swimming team this weekend. The Quakers fell victim to Army, 143-100, and to Brown, 166.67-75. If past years were any indication, the scores of this meet should have been a lot closer. Penn lost to Army by only one point last season. As a result, the team had concentrated its efforts on defeating the Cadets this year. However, the Quakers dropped a disappointing 43-point loss to Army. Brown defeated Penn even more soundly, outscoring Penn by over 91 points. Tri-captain Paul Poggi felt that Army's Crandall Pool may have hurt the Quakers. "Army has a fast pool, but it's not a good pool for a competition," Poggi said. "It was not loud or exciting in there and that takes a lot of fun out of a meet." The team was generally disappointed with the scores of the meet, but felt confident about its individual performances. "It was closer than the scores would lead you to believe," said Poggi, a native of Tenafly, N.J. Poggi, accompanied by junior Matt Reilly, freshman Kenneth Goh and senior tri-captain Brian Cohen, brought home Penn's only first-place finish of the meet, winning the 400-meter medley relay. The foursome finished with a total time of 3:29.95. Goh concurred with Poggi, saying that although the results were not great, the effort was. "Penn was swimming their guts out and giving it all they had," Goh said. The team's top performances included races by sophomores Blake Martin, Vincent Connors and Tom Uybarreta, as well as Goh. Each brought Penn some points with third-place finishes. Additionally, the 400-meter free relay team of Connors, Reilly, Poggi and Jon Maslow finished the meet with a third place performance. Martin swam the 1,000-meter freestyle in 9:50.43, which fell just over four seconds short of the second-place position nabbed by Brown's Evan Jennings. Michael Peters, also from Brown, captured first. The 200-meter free also brought in a third-place finish by Connors, with a time of 1:44.92; Brown clinched places one and two. Connors also took third place in the 100-meter free with a time of 47.54. Uybarreta was the last of the sophomores who touched in third at 1:57.10 in the 200-meter butterfly, less than two seconds behind first-place Army's Dirk Steinfort. Goh has just returned to Penn after an exciting time swimming at the Asian Games at the end of last semester. The freshman aided the Penn cause on Saturday by taking home third place in two events, swimming a 21.75 in the 50-meter free and 2:10.23 in the 200-meter breaststroke. Although the team was racking up the third-place positions, wins were few and far between. Brown and Army clinched nearly all of the first and second places, leading to strong victories for both teams. The Quakers came into the meet with high expectations, but once again fell victim to the "Army curse." In additional action, host Army fell to the Bears by 73 points, losing 158-85 to Brown.