Youth helps M. Swimming equal ast season's win total

The Penn men's swimming team improved to 3-1 with a victory over Drexel Saturday. January is only a week and a half old, and already Penn's men's swimming team has equaled its victory total from last year. The Quakers soundly defeated Drexel at Sheerr Pool Saturday, 147-96, to bring their record to 3-1. Coming off a 3-7 season last year, Penn's quick turnaround is due to both experience and a strong freshman class. "We swim as a team and more people contribute," senior co-captain Paul Poggi said. "This year everyone has done a little more and we have more new faces to do more." After a strenuous winter break that included a trip to Miami, the Quakers could hardly have been expected to be in top competitive shape against Drexel. "We weren't expected to feel rested, but that's the point," Poggi said. "Our goal was to see how fast we could swim tired, and we did quite well as a whole." Quite well may be an understatement, as Penn recorded nine first place finishes en route to a 51-point victory. Leading the way for the Quakers was sophomore Blake Martin, who finished first in the 500-meter freestyle with a time of 4:48.97 and the 1,000-meter freestyle at 9:53.86. Penn also took first in both of the relays. The 200-meter medley relay was won by the team of Matt Reilly, Poggi, Brian Cohen and Matt Bissonette in 3:37.66, while Jon Maslow, Dave Hausladen, Amir Rozwadowski and Vincent Connors combined to win the 400-meter freestyle in 3:15.09. Penn also swept the top three spots in the 1,000-meter freestyle and the 200-meter freestyle. In the 1,000, Graham Rigby and Ian Bowman finished second and third, respectively, behind Martin. Nick Sheremeta won the 200, with Craig Nelson and Connors close behind. The diving competitions were not friendly to the Quakers, though, as Drexel swept both events, outscoring Penn 32-6. The outcome of the meet was really never in question. Penn led 15-2 after the first event and never looked back. Because the meet was such a runaway, coach Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert could afford to be creative in structuring her lineup. "I was very confident the men would squash Drexel, so I wanted to do some different things," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "I wanted to get Ben Schmidt some more action, so I put him into the 200 backstroke." With Kenneth Goh, the Quakers' top backstroker, unable to swim because he had just competed in the Asian Games, it made sense to give Schmidt his experience in this meet. The freshman proved Lawlor-Gilbert right with a third-place finish. Penn cannot afford to be as liberal with its training and lineup in their double dual meet this Saturday. With Army and Brown on the schedule, the Quakers will need every possible point. "I think we're kinda equal to Army -- that meet should be a real slugfest," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "But Brown might pose a little more of a threat. They're a little deeper than we are." With a win against either team, Penn would eclipse its win total from last year, an impressive accomplishment for a team with three-quarters of its members in the freshman or sophomore class. "I think we can compete against absolutely anybody, but they know that on any given day," Lawlor-Gilbert said. "They don't walk in and say, 'Oh, they're better.' I've had teams that sometimes look at the league and assume that the other teams are better, but the upperclass guys remind the younger guys that almost anybody can beat anybody."