Months of practices, hours of endless training, and eight dual meets -- all to prepare for the decisive event of the season, the Ivy League championship meet.
"This is what the season comes down to," Penn sophomore Ashley Rader said. "We are all really excited and really nervous."
Sure, the Penn women's swimming team had other thoughts on its mind throughout the season than the pivotal meet at the end. But after a second consecutive year of improvement, it is impossible not to question where the Quakers will fall among the Ivy elite.
"Last year we got sixth at Ivies, and I think we want to move up from there," Penn sophomore breaststroker Jen Block said. "I think we can definitely move up to fifth, and should end up challenging Harvard, and even Yale possibly, too."
Penn swam its best meet of the season at Harvard's Blodgett Pool against the Crimson and Columbia on Dec. 9. During the meet, the Quakers definitively grabbed their first victory in 11 years over the Lions with a 210-90 triumph.
While Penn narrowly lost to Harvard at the same meet, 156-144, four Quakers combined to grab eight school records. The remainder of the team also posted personal best times during the meet.
The Quakers return to Blodgett pool this weekend, and hope to repeat on their past performances.
"I don't think that there is anything that great about the pool itself," Penn freshman Katie Coxe said. "But I think it will be great for us to swim [at Harvard], because everyone has such great memories from swimming there."
While Yale's Susan Cooke and Princeton's Kate Conroy and Sarah Fraumann are seeded to obliterate the competition in their respective specialty events, the majority of the meet should be extremely competitive, particularly in the final heat of each event.
"It's going to be a really tight meet," Block said. "Everything's going to come down to who wants it more."
Block's main strength, the 100 breaststroke, could be the most highly contested event during the meet. After placing third at last year's championship meet, Block enters this year's competition seeded second behind Harvard's Erica De Benedetto. But any of the next seven seeded swimmers could also have a decisive role in the title chase for the 100 breaststroke.
Fellow Penn sophomore Ashley Rader is seeded eighth with a time of 1:06.00, just .76 seconds away from Block's time.
Princeton enters the meet seeking to repeat as Ivy champions for the fifth consecutive year. After a fourth straight undefeated dual meet season, which included a 144-125 win over Ivy runner-up Yale, the Tigers enter this season's championship meet as the heavy favorites.
Along with the breaststroke events, the Red and Blue will grab their most points from the distance freestyle events, Katie Stores in the sprint freestyle events Katie Frazee in the backstroke events, and each of the Penn relays.
But overall depth could also key a Penn run at the crown.
"I definitely feel that one person in every event could get top eight," Penn sophomore Kathleen Holthaus said. "Every event is going to be competitive."
Stores is seeded second in both the 100 and 200 freestyle, and should she win, would be the first Penn swimmer since 1983 to win an event at Ivy Championships.
While just a freshman, Stores has a tremendous task before her.
Not only is she the best candidate to end Penn's notorious first-place drought, but also will play a key role in the Quakers' quest for a team championship.
"It's amazing how this team was not so great three years ago," Stores said.
"It's great that we could make it to the top three of the Ivies."
If the Quakers are to achieve a top-three finish, though, Stores will need help from its typically depth-laden squad.
