W. Swimming faces two tough opponents

Weather permitting, the Penn women's swimming team aims to avenge last year's loss to Brown. If they can find a clear road out of Philadelphia, the Penn women's swimming team will head to West Point, N.Y., tomorrow. The largest team in Quakers history will participate in its first tri-meet of the season at the United States Military Academy's Crandall Pool against both Army and Brown. Quakers coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert was once snowed in with a team trying to get to the same pool to face Brown and Army. "My first year here as head coach of both [the men's and women's] teams, we did a meet over the phone," Lawlor-Gilbert remembered. "We swam three in each event the way we would normally, and we called in the results. We got a kick out of it, and the national press wound up picking up on it. But I think we'll be okay Saturday. Everyone tells me the weather will be better." The weather should be the least of the worries for the Red and Blue (2-2, 0-2 Ivy), however. Assuming that they don't have to phone in the meet, Penn's large corps of freshmen will be facing the toughest opposition of their young collegiate careers. Brown (3-1, 2-0) leads the Ivy League with its victories over Harvard and Dartmouth. The Bears' only loss came Wednesday against No. 18 North Carolina. The Quakers know that they have a very good chance to beat Army (3-5), but they are anxious to get their first Ivy League victory since 1993. "It'd be pretty nice to get the first one," Penn freshman Devin McGlynn noted. "We really went for it against Cornell, but we didn't quite get it." For the season opener against the Big Red, the Quakers were rested. Lawlor-Gilbert is not resting her team for this meet, however. Since an intensive training program over winter break, the practice load has not decreased at Sheerr Pool. To make matters even tougher for Penn, no divers will travel from West Philadelphia to West Point, meaning that the Quakers will spot 26-point leads to both of their opponents. Last weekend against Drexel, the Red and Blue was able to surmount that deficit. "I definitely think that we can overcome not having any divers," Penn sophomore Cathy Holland said. "It would be much easier to win meets if we had divers because we would have the points, but this year we have such a strong team mentally." The root of Penn's mental toughness is its senior leadership. The far-outnumbered older swimmers have instilled an attitude of capability to their younger, sometimes faster counterparts. "We've been swimming really well, and everyone's working really hard," Penn senior Jen Triolo said. "It seems like everyone is competing better, and we're ready for the tougher teams." Confidence alone won't get that first Ivy victory for this group of Quakers, however. The whole team will have to swim its best match of the season. "I think that I can go a little bit faster than I did last weekend," said McGlynn, who prevailed in three races against Drexel . "I'm going to have to. We'll all have to swim fast, because [Brown] has some really fast girls." Having already doubled its win total from last season, when it lost to Brown 200-69, Penn will have nothing to lose by going for an upset of what is probably the Ivy League's best team. By setting their sights so high, the Quakers have also given themselves a better chance against Army, as the Red and Blue -- riding a two-meet winning streak -- will be particularly excited to get into the pool on Saturday. Let's just hope that excitement doesn't have to be relayed over the phone.