10-win season in reach

The end of the meet featured a 34-point Quakers' victory, but the score didn't tell the true story of the meet last night at Sheerr Pool. In a meet that featured abnormal events, the Penn women's swim team (9-3, 4-3 Ivy) captured first place in the first six events of the night and never looked back, beating the Broncs, 134-100. "Our girls came in and took the lead early and got the job done when it counted," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. With the win, the Quakers are now one win away from the team goal of 10 wins on the season. After grabbing a significant lead, Penn used the meet as an opportunity to insert swimmers into events that they do not normally swim, giving the athletes opportunities to qualify for the Ivy League championships. Taking advantage of her unusual position in the lineup, sophomore Alexis Underwood provided a highlight, darting through the water for a first place finish in the 500 freestyle in 5:09.84 -- nine seconds faster than Rider's Melissa Morrissey. Morrissey ended up placing third behind Penn freshman Kristen Kelly. "I didn't expect to win," Underwood said seconds after her first- place finish. "And I'm shocked that I was able to beat Melissa." With the meet in hand, the Red and Blue were also able to declare their final two events -- the 200 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay -- as exhibition events -- so as not to run up the score on the defeated Broncs. The 400 medley relay team of Megan Daney, Jen Block, Anne Tudryn and Nicole Wake began the meet in convincing fashion, grabbing first place in 4:01.69, two seconds faster than Rider's 'A' relay. The event -- one that typically takes place during the championship meets -- saw the Quakers changing swimmers' typical positions in the relay. Highlighted by changes that included freestyler Robyn Harm swimming backstroke, sprint freestyler Laura Hotaling swimming butterfly and breaststroke specialist Tudryn swimming fly, the Quakers grabbed first, third and fourth in the event overall. Penn record-holder Katie Stores also made an appearance in the 'B' medley relay, anchoring the team to third place in 55.44 seconds -- Stores is still recovering from a bout with mononucleosis. Demonstrating their early dominance, Penn record holders Tudryn and Kathleen Holthaus each swam only once during the meet -- Holthaus cruised to victory in the 1650 freestyle in 17:22.55, also an event that is usually featured only in Ivy League championships. In other first place finishes, freshman Lauren Weinstein -- usually a butterflyer -- captured the 200 freestyle, Hotaling the 50 free, freshman Erica Gentilucci the 400 individual medley and junior Rachel Zappalorti the 200 fly. "In the end, we just proved to be too strong for Rider depth-wise," Schnur said. "By the middle of the meet, they were using the same girls over again while we had fresh swimmers entering." The Quakers will next travel to city-rival La Salle for their final meet of the season and a potential 10-win season. This same program was in the midst of a 34-meet consecutive Ivy losing streak when this year's seniors arrived to the program. "I think it says how amazing Mike [Schnur] has been doing in bringing in great recruiting classes," co-captain Jessica Anders said earlier this year. "Every year, the class is even better... The fact that we knew that we were a stronger team coming in just says great things about the way things are taking the team."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.