Men's Swimming to take on Columbia

If the Penn men's swim team (0-2, 0-2) hopes to get a victory this Friday night against Columbia, it's going to have to do so under some pretty adverse conditions.

This week, the Quakers' venue transition mirrors their geographical voyage. The change from the country club-atmosphere of Princeton, N.J. to a pool just outside of Harlem is nearly as drastic as the shift from the pleasant Denunzio Pool at Princeton to Columbia's more imposing home.

Located a full five stories underground, Columbia's Uris Pool can prove to be intimidating to visitors.

"It's got a bomb shelter type feel to it," Penn coach Mike Schnur said.

"Columbia is a tough place to swim at. It is certainly a different atmosphere than Princeton."

The success of the Red and Blue Friday evening will be determined by their ability to control their strongest events: the 200 butterfly, 200 backstroke, and 100 and 500 freestyle events.

"If we do well in these events, then I think things will go our way," Schnur said. "But if we struggle in them, then we could have a tough meet on our hands."

The Quakers (0-2, 0-2 Ivy) opened their 2002-03 season last Friday, taking on Cornell and Princeton in a dual meet. Despite strong individual performances, the Quakers finished third at the meet, falling 140-103 to Cornell and 168-75 to Princeton.

Coming into the meet, few expected Penn to defeat national powerhouse Princeton. However, having fallen to Penn the last four years, the Quakers' second opponent was a decided underdog.

While Cornell has typically been an easy opponent, the Big Red chose to shave and rest their swimmers to honor a fallen teammate. In the week preceding the meet, Cornell swimmer Scott Paavola passed away from natural causes, and the meet served as a rallying cry to take out the Quakers for the first time in three years.

Schnur explained that Cornell, who recorded six lifetime-best swims in the meet, was simply in the zone against his Quakers.

"They swam the best they will ever swim against us," he said.

Schnur added that his team's 0-2 finish on the weekend was not indicative of its performance.

"We swam well enough to beat the majority of the schools we play this season," Schnur said. "If we swim that well on Friday, we should be in good shape."

Particularly impressive was freshman Pat Maloney. Last weekend, he won the 200 fly in his first collegiate race.

Schnur notes that this weekend's meet against Columbia may have particular significance to Maloney and the other rookies. In addition to annual in-league competition with the Lions, Penn coaches also compete with Columbia to attract top athletes.

"We have a lot of overlap with that program. We both recruit the top student-athletes," Schnur said.

In fact, many members of Penn's talented freshman class were wooed by Columbia last year.

Schnur thinks that this fact will motivate his swimmers to realize their potential against the Lions.

"We have some freshmen this year that chose Penn over Columbia." Schnur said. "I am sure that they will want to show well against the coaches that recruited them."

Whatever the motivation, Schnur hopes that the Quakers will get the job done this week. No shaving. No resting. Just swimming well and winning the meets that they are supposed to win.

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