Men's Swimming dominates field

The Penn men's swimming team was forced to test its stamina this weekend at the two-day-long Bucknell Invitational. And despite a week of hard training going into the meet, fatigue did not stand in the Quakers' way. With a final score of 790 points, the Red and Blue came out on top of both Bucknell (380) and Binghamton (168). Though the Quakers were the favorite going into the meet, they faced the challenge of swimming without the rest they typically get before competing. "It was a good meet to see how we swim as tired as we were," freshman Andrew Trout said. "Now we know we can swim even faster with a little more focus." "We're swimming well even though we're tired, which is a good sign," added senior captain Brian Barone. "We've never trained this hard in my four years, but its benefits are obvious and I'm not questioning them." Penn's training regimen clearly paid off this weekend, but the other reason behind the Quakers' high scores were the squad's breadth of talent across the board. "Binghamton had two or three very good swimmers and Bucknell had six or seven, but our depth won out," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "Our 10th through 24th men are great." Penn's underclassmen proved to be a key to the Quakers' success this past weekend. Sophomore Nate Pinney broke the pool record for the 1,650-yard freestyle. The event -- one that Penn does not swim in its Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League meets -- is the longest in men's swimming. Freshman Andrew Trout took second in the 50-yard freestyle. In the 200 breaststroke, sophomore Chris Miller took first place, and freshman Lowell Lamb captured second. Miller, who normally only swims breaststroke, also placed fourth in the 200-yard backstroke, an event that was won by Penn sophomore Allen Lam. "As a breaststroker, I usually don't train in other events," said Miller, who dropped five seconds off his personal record in the 200 back this weekend. "I'm proud of the fact that I swam absolutely exhausted and swam eight events. It was hell." The Quakers swept the top spots in a number of events. Penn took the top four spots in the 200 freestyle, the top five in the 100 backstroke, and second through sixth places in the 200 butterfly. Towards the end of the weekend, Penn had enough of a point cushion for Schnur to be creative, allowing him to switch around his usual lineup. Although Bucknell was a good meet to train through and a place to have a good time, according to Schnur, Columbia should be a different story. With more rest and more serious attention to improving times, Penn hopes to play on its strengths next Saturday and beat the Lions, one of its biggest rivals in the league.

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