After completing what was arguably the most successful season in recent memory, the Penn men's swimming team had something to prove over spring break at the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships -- held at the Nassau County Aquatics Center in Hempstead, N.Y.
"We didn't want to finish eighth like we did last year, especially after such a strong turnaround the second half of the season," Penn junior Brendan Lang said.
The Quakers (7-5, 2-5 Ivy League) rose to the challenge, taking fifth place at EISLs and recording their third-best point total in the history of the program. Their overall record was the team's best since the 1988-89 season.
The Red and Blue finished the three-day competition with 672.5 points, a huge improvement from the 449 points recorded last year.
"We had a great weekend," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "It was a great finish for our graduating seniors, for them to finish their careers with an impressive performance at the biggest event of the season."
Although Penn finished nearly 200 points behind fourth-place Columbia, the Quakers soundly defeated rivals Navy, Brown and Cornell -- teams that had defeated Penn at the EISLs a year ago.
The Quakers also avenged their early season loss to the Big Red.
"We're a better team than Cornell, but they were rested and shaved when they played us early in the season," co-captain Spencer Driscoll said. "Beating them at the EISLs nullified that."
The Quakers earned four top-eight performances in individual events. Senior Chris Miller -- who hails from nearby Glenhead, N.Y. -- finished sixth in the 100 breaststroke in 56.98 and eighth in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:05:46.
"It was nice to return home and swim in front of my home crowd to finish the season," Miller said.
Freshman sensation Pat Maloney did not disappoint in his first-ever performance at the EISLs. Maloney finished fourth in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:48.39 and fifth in the 400 individual medley in 3:58.50.
Maloney's performance in the 200 fly provisionally makes him eligible for the NCAA Championships, which will occur at the end of the month in Austin, Texas.
"Pat swam amazing this weekend, he is going to have a large impact on the future of Ivy League swimming," Schnur said.
Also contributing for the Quakers was junior Andrew Trout, whose 10th place time of 20.43 in the 50 free broke the Penn record in the event.
Nationally ranked Harvard took the championship, defeating second-place Princeton 1592-1565. The Crimson, who avenged last year's upset loss to the Tigers, claimed their seventh EISL championship in the last eight years.
While Penn is aware that their swimming program could not match Harvard's this season, the graduating seniors recognize that the gap between Penn and national powerhouses such as the Crimson is narrowing.
"Coach Schnur and the rest of the staff do a great job to make each successive incoming class stronger than the last," senior co-captain Kevin Pope said. "In a few years from now, we'll see what Penn can do against teams such as Princeton and Harvard."
