The Penn women's swimming team tasted both victory and defeat on Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y. The team easily defeated Cornell, 214-86, but fell to rival Princeton, 183-106.
The Quakers faced two vastly different teams. Princeton is a powerhouse in women's swimming; they have posted an undefeated record in dual meets for four years. Cornell, on the other hand, simply did not have the swimmers to compete with Penn.
Overall, the Penn coaches and swimmers view the meet in a positive light.
Coach Mike Schnur thought the team "swam really well." He explained that "a lot of the women swam faster against Cornell than against [our last opponent] Richmond, which is real surprising because of travel times and because Cornell has a pretty slow pool and we have a pretty good pool."
Senior co-captain Rachel Zappalorti said that "the team did great," and gave "Princeton a run for its money."
Schnur saw many positives even in the loss to Princeton.
"The score [against Princeton] wasn't indicative of how close the meet was -- we had a lot of close races," he said.
The meet was also marked by individual successes for Penn swimmers. Freshman Margot Newcomer finished first in the 200 individual medley and second in the 200 backstroke. The only swimmer to finish first against Princeton, however, was freshman standout Sarah Jeffers, who won the 200 butterfly for the second week in a row.
Newcomer and Jeffers lead an exciting freshman class of swimmers.
"The freshman were absolutely outstanding this weekend, the backbone of the team," said Zappalorti, who also competed in the 200 fly.
Schnur was impressed with Jeffers' performance for a second time.
"She's gonna be great, she's not only a good workout swimmer, but she's a great racer. She hates to lose," he said.
Despite the anticipation of a rematch of the top two distance swimmers in the Ivy League -- Princeton's Sarah Fraumann and Penn's Kathleen Holthaus -- neither proved to have much of an effect on the scope of the meet. Holthaus took third in the 500 free and Fraumann took second, but the times -- both around 5:10 -- do not necessarily resemble how the two will finish at the end of the year.
This weekend may serve as a sign of what is to come for the Quakers. Although they were unable to defeat Princeton, the potential shown by the young team bodes well for the future.
"I think that as we go through the next few years we have a great opportunity to beat Princeton," Schnur said.
