M. Swimming gets torpedoed by Navy

The 13 events at this past Saturday's meet against the U.S. Naval Academy proved to be an unlucky number for the Penn men's swimming team. The Quakers managed to place first in only two events and lost to the Midshipmen, 132-72. The loss put a stop to a four-meet Penn winning streak and brought the Quakers' record to 5-2 on the season. Navy proved itself superior in the freestyle events, sweeping Penn in the 50-meter freestyle and taking both first place and second place in the 100 free, 200 free and the 400 freestyle relay. Penn sophomore diver Matt Cornell also faced tough competition, losing to all four of the Navy divers in both the one-meter and three-meter events. There were some notable highlights for the Quakers, however, with junior Brian Barone, freshman Nate Pinney and sophomore Gabe Tompkins taking first, second and third, respectively, in the 200 backstroke. Penn's Chris Miller also captured first place in the 200 breaststroke. "They have three very good sprinters," senior Jon Maslow said. "In the short distance freestyles, I know they have some extremely fast guys." The loss to Navy this Saturday shows the Quakers that, while they may have beaten Army for the first time in 25 years last weekend, they are still a stroke behind the elite programs in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League. "My senior year in 1988 was the first time Penn had ever won at Navy in 100 years," coach Mike Schnur said. "We've only won down there once, maybe twice." With a history of losing to Navy, the Quakers were not surprised by this weekend's result. In fact, the team's loss to Navy in freestyle events shows just how much better the Midshipmen are, in light of the fact that the Quakers' freestyle events have been their ace-in-the-hole throughout the season. Penn is preparing for a tough series of races next weekend when they will race Dartmouth and Yale on Saturday, followed by Brown on Sunday. "We've never done a back-to-back Ivy League meet," Schnur said. "Our goal is to compete with Yale, beat Dartmouth and not tire ourselves out so much because we're swimming Brown the next day." That might be easier said than done. Penn lost to what was arguably an inferior Dartmouth team last year at the EISL Championships, but the Quakers will need to defeat both the Big Green and the Bears if they are to have their first winning season since 1991. "Dartmouth we will most definitely beat," Maslow said. "Brown, depending on how coach Schnur wants to play it, can be either a really close meet or we can just lay off and let Brown win -- it depends whether he wants to shave people or rest them for the meet." With Easterns not until March 2, Penn has a solid chunk of time to recuperate after next weekend's meets. If the Quakers hope to finish the season strong and, more specifically, with a .500 record, they will need to do less recuperating and more momentum-building. In other words, the Red and Blue will need to see more competitions like the one against Army and fewer like the one against the Midshipmen.