M. Swimming grabs eighth place at EISLs

Despite a season filled with setbacks, the Penn men's swimming team was able to regroup to make an impressive showing at its final meet.

The Quakers traveled to Boston, Mass., last weekend for the Eastern Interscholastic League championship meet, earning 449 points, placing them eighth out of 10 teams.

Princeton captured the title with 1522 points. The Tigers ended Harvard's six-year winning streak.

Though the Red and Blue were not able to compete with the Tigers and the Crimson, Penn was pleased with its performance in the meet, as the Quakers have faced a rash of difficulties this semester.

The Red and Blue were plagued with a countless number of injuries throughout the second half of the season, which greatly impeded their ability to keep up with the intense level of Ivy League competition.

"Some of our best swimmers got wiped out," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "Our team right now is not the same team we were in November or December. We were a much better team in December because we were a lot healthier then."

However, the Quakers were able to rise above their injuries and step up to fill the gaps in the roster.

"I'm glad we were able to overcome some of the holes in our line-up," Schnur said. "With all of the injuries we've had all year, the guys had to work harder, they showed a lot of heart."

Freshman Chris Perez led the Red and Blue, racking up 41 points.

Perez placed 16th in the 500 yard freestyle in 4:33.42 and 12th in both the 1000 and 1600 yard freestyle.

"Chris Perez had an amazing meet," Schnur said. "He had huge improvements over his last times."

Junior Nate Pinney was the lone Quakers' swimmer to reach the final round of competition. Despite experiencing severe asthma attacks in both of his first two events, Pinney finished seventh in the 200 yard butterfly in 1:50.05.

"It showed an immense amount of heart for him to make the finals," Schnur said. "His shorter events were way better than he has ever done before."

"It was nice to see him with a lot of heart coming back."

The Quakers will build upon this inspiring finish to continue their improvement next season. Penn only brought two seniors to the championship meet and already has 11 recruits committed to the team that were accepted to the University early decision.

"We have a phenomenal group of recruits," Schnur said. "Next year's guys are going to be very successful. There are some really fast guys in that group."

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