W. Swimming looks to glide past G'Town

The Quakers, who snapped their 42-meet Ivy losing streak against Cornell, face the Hoyas tomorrow. Thanksgiving fell in between the Penn women's swimming team's last meet and its home opener with Georgetown tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the Sheerr Pool. And if the ending of their 42-meet Ivy losing streak in that last meet was a figurative breaking of the Thanksgiving wishbone early, the Quakers see swimming against the Hoyas as a belated dessert. With their second-place finish -- eight points ahead of third-place Cornell and 53 points behind first-place Princeton -- in the November 20 meet, the Quakers ended six years of Ivy frustration and experienced a catharsis that they hope will propel them through the rest of the season. The result of tomorrow's faceoff against a beatable Georgetown squad will be the Quakers' first chance to see if they can become accustomed to their winning ways. During the last two weeks of practice, the Quakers have reacted well to their early-season success, using it to instill a more upbeat attitude in themselves. "Last year we went into the [Cornell] meet and really wanted to win it, and we didn't, and it was really tough after that," sophomore Devin McGlynn said. "But this year? we're acting more positive. We're definitely more positive than we have been in prior years." The Hoyas have had an average season thus far and are coming off of a decisive 133-106 loss to Rider November 20. Because of this, the Quakers believe they have reason to feel confident. "They're a good team, but we could definitely beat them," McGlynn said. "We're a much stronger team than they are. In every event, basically, looking at their statistics and ours, we can beat them. We have more depth. We have more girls that can go faster than they can." Penn and Georgetown, however, have jointly asked for exhibition heats to take place tomorrow. This suggests that the Hoyas have been resting their swimmers in practice this week leading up to their date with the Quakers. With the Hoyas having rested their swimmers, their team, will most likely be in top condition. For this reason, McGlynn thinks the meet will be tightly contested. "[By resting their athletes], they have more energy and they swim faster," she said. "It should be a pretty good meet." Given this, any kind of letdown coming off of the Cornell win might well doom the Quakers to a loss to a statistically inferior team. Despite this possibility, Penn feels considerably less tension going into this meet than it experienced against Cornell two weeks ago. "Cornell was a lot of fun, but it was also so stressful. We were all so nervous. We all wanted to win so bad," McGlynn said. "We're really looking to have fun [tomorrow]." A Quakers win tomorrow would give them a 2-1 mark on the young season and would put them in great shape going into their first home Ivy meet of the season, against Columbia next Friday night. "Two wins in a row would definitely be a great thing for us," McGlynn said.