M. Swimming tops Columbia in N.Y.

The Penn men's swimming team got exactly what it trained for last Saturday against Columbia -- a hard-fought battle and a close win. The Quakers beat the Lions for the second straight year. The score this year was 135-107, a thin margin compared to last year's 146-88 final. "Last year we felt gypped out of a good meet when they kind of rolled over," senior captain Brian Barone said. This year, the victory was far sweeter, which was exactly what Penn coach Mike Schnur had in mind. "We got a win without having to sacrifice training," Schnur said. "That was our goal." Schnur's strategy is to consistently train the Quakers now so the team can afford to rest up for tougher teams later on in the season. Against Columbia, the Quakers could afford to swim tired. "When you don't rest and you get results like this weekend, it gives you a lot of confidence," sophomore Nate Pinney said. "It was amazing seeing people swim like that." Pinney helped lead the Quakers to victory with a second-place finish in both the 1,000-yard and the 500-yard freestyle events. Even though the Quakers did not shave for the meet, the team was mentally and physically prepared for an intense competition. "We expected a dog fight, and that's exactly what we got," junior Russ Zuckerman said. Penn started the meet with a win in the 400-yard medley relay and finished with a charged victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The free relay was a fight to the finish. The crowd, which consisted of more Penn friends, family and alumni than Columbia faithful, went crazy as Zuckerman brought home the win by a narrow 0.38 second margin. According to Schnur, the Lions knew that Penn's talent in the relays was too much, and therefore chose to pull some of their best swimmers from the relays in order to win in the individual events. Columbia's strategy failed early on in the meet, however, when Penn freshman Eric Hirschhorn wiped out the field in the 200-yard freestyle. As the meet wore on, the Quakers continued to pick up momentum with sophomore Spencer Driscoll's victories in the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard butterfly. His wins only added to Columbia's frustrations with its flailing strategy. Driscoll's effort was supported by the Quakers' freshmen. Brendan Lang and Matt Hand took second and third for Penn in the 200 butterfly, while Lowell Lamb and Adam Smith captured the silver and bronze, respectively, in the 200 free. It was for the older members of the team, however, that the victory was particularly satisfying. "Two years ago we had such a close meet and we lost in the last event, which was hard to swallow," Barone said. "This weekend we got to see what this team is all about. We found out we've got a lot of guts and we're in shape." With only 11 weeks left in the season, this weekend's win in New York solidified the Penn squad's momentum, which they will need going into a month-long stretch that will consist of hard training and no meets. "Columbia gave good closure to the first half of the season," Zuckerman said. "It's given us more motivation to train hard for the Eastern Championships."

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