Penn - 168 Army - 122
Every now and then every team needs a roll-over meet -- a contest where everyone in the linuep has the opportunity to swim different events.
From the opening minutes against Army, it was evident that this meet had finally arrived for the Penn women's swimming team.
The Quakers (4-2, 2-2 Ivy League) won all but three events over the course of the meet on their way to obliterating the hapless Cadets' squad, 168-122.
"Sometimes doing the same thing gets monotonous," sophomore Jen Block said. "Just breaking it up is something new and exciting."
Block, Penn's school record holder in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke, uncharacteristically got the chance to swim the 500 freestyle against Army.
The meet gave Penn's depth the opportunity to excel.
"I thought we got a lot of good performances out of the women who really didn't get to swim that much first semester," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "Our women's team is really deep and has a lot of quality athletes on it."
Sophomore Mary Skonicki rose to the occasion in the 100 freestyle, grabbing first with a time of 55.60 seconds. Megan Schoenhaus captured third in the 50 free and second in the 100 free, while Carly Wilson took second in the 200 backstroke.
Sophomore Rebecca Shore highlighted the individual events for the Quakers. She claimed victories in both the 400 individual medley and the 200 breaststroke.
Especially after Penn's training trip in Florida, anticipating an easy meet against the Cadets proved to be essential at this point in the season. The Quakers were able to continue their intense practices without having to worry about Saturday's meet. Several swimmers even practiced on the day of the meet.
"I think it helps because it allows us to continue training hard without having to focus on a duel meet," Schnur said. "Now as we go through the next two weeks, we have difficult teams."
Penn will travel to Annapolis next week to face Navy.
Although the Quakers times against the Cadets proved to be far from stellar, beating Army for the third consecutive year shows how much Penn's program has risen in the past few years.
"It shows how far we've come as a program," Schnur said. "Army used to whoop us. They were a better program than us up to three three years ago."
