Tired M. Swimming rocked in Annapolis

Penn - 83 Navy - 160 Even though the Penn men's swimming team had been training vigorously as of late, a strong Navy squad proved to be too much for the Quakers to handle this weekend as it swam to a decisive, 160-83, victory.

"They're just better than we are," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "We had no answer for them."

In dominating the Red and Blue, the Midshipmen tallied the majority of their points in the the freestyle sprint events.

Navy outscored the Quakers in these events, 47-3.

"They were great in the 50, 100 and 200 [meter freestyle]," Schnur said. "They were just too good for us."

Navy swept the 50 meter freestyle, capturing the top three positions. Sophomore Matt James swam the event in 23.81 seconds for the victory.

Though they were overmatched in the shorter events, the Quakers showed their strength in the longer and individual stroke events.

"We battled really well in that meet in the long events, the hard events," Schnur said. "We did really well in the 800 meter, the 200 butterfly and the 200 breaststroke."

Penn freshman Brian Funk swam away with the win in the 800 meter freestyle, coming in at 8:32.37. Sophomore Shaun Lehrer placed third.

Scoring points for the Quakers in the 200 breaststroke were junior Chris Miller and freshman Carl Ericson. Miller was victorious finishing in 2:23.86. Ericson placed fourth in 2:31.02.

"We had some very good performances," Schnur said.

Penn sophomore Brendan Lang finished the 200 butterfly in 2:07.92 to win the event.

Though somewhat disappointed with the meet's result, Lang was satisfied with his performance.

"It was nice to save some face against Navy," Lang said. "It was really an encouragement to swim that fast when I was tired."

He also believes the team got a boost as a whole.

"I think it really helps moral because it shows that we can still beat the teams in upcoming meets even though we are so tired."

Also contributing to the Quakers' finally tally were freshmen Funk and Eddie Anderton. Funk finished second in the 200 butterfly, while Anderton placed fourth.

This weekend Penn travels north for a pair of meets. The Quakers will compete in a dual meet against Yale and Dartmouth at Yale on Saturday, before trekking to Providence, R.I. to face Brown Sunday.

Though Schnur hopes that his team will fare well in its upcoming meets, he continues to focus on the championships at the conclusion of the season.

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