Swimming has not trouble against Army

The Penn men's and women's swimming teams are hoping that their grueling winter break has prepared them for the long, tough road ahead. With the men's 166-77 convincing victory over Army and with the women's 169-129 besting of those same Cadets this past Saturday afternoon at Sheerr Pool, the Quakers look as if they are already reaping the dividends of their toil. The men's win improved their record to 5-1 (2-1 Ivy) on the still-youthful season. It was also the first time that Penn beat the Cadets in a quarter of a century. They last beat them on February 15, 1975, by a score of 65-48. The Quakers prevailed on the strength of the performances received from freshmen Spencer Driscoll and Nate Pinney. Driscoll, who has become an extremely productive member of the Red and Blue, recorded victories in the 200-yard individual medley and the 200 butterfly, while Pinney triumphed in the 500 and 1,000 freestyles. "As a freshman, I wasn't really taken into the tradition as much, because we had lost to Army for the last 25, 26 years," Driscoll said. "It's always meant a lot. [Penn] Coach [Mike] Schnur was really into it, as were some of the upperclassmen." After years of close losses to the Cadets, the Quakers were encouraged by not only beating Army, but also by doing it so handily. "Coach has been telling us that this is the strongest team he's seen in four or five years," Driscoll said. "And since we haven't beaten Army in 25 years, maybe it's been that long since we've had a team this strong. "Everyone's just really improving and working hard. Coach Schnur now, instead of [former Penn coach] Kathy Lawlor-Gilbert, has kind of changed the mentality of the team in the way we look at training and working with each other." The Quakers were busy before hosting the Cadets. They took the short walk over to Drexel on January 8 and came away with a victory, 139-98, their fourth of the season. The Drexel meet came in the middle of the Quakers' winter break training, and Driscoll referred to it as a "training meet." "It wasn't a big meet," Driscoll said. "People didn't swim their good events, so you just went into it trying to do as well as you could." The Quakers are especially happy with their performance against the Cadets due to the fact that the Penn swimmers only had about a week of winter break before returning to campus to train and swim in two meets. The training, which has been more intensive than training normally done during the semester, has been primarily geared towards preparing for the rest of their challenging Ancient Eight campaign. Perhaps the biggest benefit of the exhausting training, however, did not necessarily show up on the scoreboard. "As well as making everyone tired, [the training] brought the team together," Driscoll said. "Everyone's tired, but everyone goes, and we're all in it together. Since housing is closed, we all stay in houses together. It's a real team bonding experience." The Penn women's victory against Army improved their season record to 4-3 (1-3 Ivy) and to 2-1 on the new year. Penn, which had last defeated Army in 1996, received a multitude of outstanding performances, including junior captain Cathy Holland's victories in the 200-yard backstroke and the 200 individual medley. Impressive freshman Kate Patrizzi also won two events, the 100 and 200 flys. "Basically, the girls had a great meet," Holland said. "Everybody was really excited. There was lots of cheering, and lots of positive attitudes." Penn defeated host Drexel on January 8, 132-97, in their first meet of the new year. The versatile Holland captured the 500 and 1000 freestyles, and the increasingly vital Patrizzi won the 100 breaststroke. The next day, the Quakers traveled to Cambridge to take on Ivy power Harvard and were destroyed, 223-72, constituting their third Ivy loss of the season. Patrizzi was the lone victor for Penn, winning the 200 fly. But Holland feels that the loss to the Crimson is not an indication of how far the Quakers have to go to reach elite status in the Ivies. "[The loss] basically just said that we've been training hard the past two weeks," she said. "We were all pretty tired. I don't think it really told us much more than that. "I'd say these past three meets have all kind of had the same tone to them. We're swimming tired. That transition's tough, to go from training to racing, but I think all the girls have done a great job of doing that. I think Army proved that." There's little rest for the Penn swimmers, as both the men and women travel to Annapolis, Md., Saturday to take on Navy.