This weekend, the Penn men's swimming team proved that second place isn't so bad after all.
Through strong second-place finishes in events across the board, the Quakers were able to beat Dartmouth, 173-125, and come close to beating Yale, falling by a score of 162-136.
The win against Dartmouth was especially appreciated since the Big Green beat a Brown team that triumphed over the Quakers only last weekend.
The 200 meter freestyle set the tone for Penn, in which the team of freshman Teddy Rainaud, sophomores Jon Kaufman and Kevin Scott and senior Andrew Trout took first place with a time of 1:34.36.
The event was unusual in that the men were swimming women's lengths, because they were alternating at the same meet. Thus, the length of the men's relay was cut in half from 400 meters to 200 meters.
"It's more fun to do the 50 [yard freestyle]," Scott said. "We only get to do the girl's line-up once a year."
The relay wasn't fun just for the men who got to swim in it.
"That relay really got us going to the rest of the meet," Maloney said. "I saw them swim and said, 'this is going to be awesome.'"
The Penn sophomore certainly rose to the standard set by the men in the relay. Maloney was one of Penn's valuable second-place finishes, coming in behind Yale senior Jimmy Veazey by only eight tenths of a second.
"I thought I could have beaten him," Maloney said. "I felt alright in the water, but I thought I was going to be faster than I was."
While Veazey also beat Maloney in the same meet last year, Maloney managed to out swim Veazey at last year's Eastern Championships.
"He's just faster than I am right now," Maloney said. "It just comes down to the time of day. It could have gone either way."
Fortunately, Penn's multiple second-place finishes were enough to carry the team to a win over Dartmouth. The wins included Kaufman in the 100 yard breast, senior Eric Hirschhorn in 200 yard freestyle and Trout in the 50 yard freestyle. Less than than four tenths of a second behind Trout in third was Scott, revealing the depth of the Penn sprinters.
"Our sprinters are pretty good," Scott said. "But we still need one more person to step up."
Whatever work the Quakers may have ahead of them for the rest of the season, Saturday's meet has them set in the right direction.
"We're definitely getting stronger," Maloney said. "We scared [Yale] at little. We showed them we weren't going to be pushovers."
Penn returns to action Wed. when it hosts Rider.
Penn 173, Dartmouth 125
Penn 136,Yale 162
200 MR -- Penn (Rainaud, Kaufman, Trout, Scott) 1:34.36. 1000 free -- Krasenics (Yale) 9:39.61. 200 free -- Foss (Yale) 1:41.37. 100 back -- Cooney (Yale) 51.48. 100 breast -- Sanford (Dartmouth) 57.90. 200 fly -- Veazey (Yale) 1:51.52. 50 free -- Goldhahn (Dartmouth) 21.02. 100 free -- Cooney (Yale) 46.67. 200 back -- Nash (Yale) 1:52.10. 200 breast -- Sanford (Dartmouth) 2:10.31. 500 free -- Fitzgerald (Yale) 4:36.75. 100 fly -- Nash (Yale) 51.38. 200 IM -- Cooney (Yale) 1:53.31. 400 FR -- Yale (Fitzgerald, Locke, Foss, Veazey) 3:06.73. 1 m dive -- Sparks (Dartmouth) 240.90. 3 m dive -- Markman (Penn) 223.55.
