While most Penn students plan on working harder on a Wednesday night than a Saturday, the opposite is true for the men's and women's swimming teams. The main focus for both squads is weekend meets, and so no one was pushing too hard as both teams swept Rider. The Penn men won 133-100, and the women won 134-98.
"This is a pretty relaxed meet," junior Patrick Brugh said. "No one is going crazy out there."
The women had their share of success in the medley, sweeping the relay.
"I feel like if you win the medley relays, you win the meet," sophomore Erica Gentilucci said. "It's a good indicator."
For the men, the relay indicated a meet that would go well, but not quite as well as they liked. Although one squad performed well, another was disqualified.
While Penn managed to win, in Brugh's opinion, the final score did not represent the disparity in talent between the two teams.
"There were a couple of events we missed out on," Brugh said. "We had some closes races swinging their way that we should have won."
While the men might have failed to live up to their potential, women's senior captain Kathleen Holthaus exceeded her own goal. Last night, she swam even faster than she needed to in order to qualify for the first heat of the one-mile freestyle at Ivy League championships.
The stakes were high for Holthaus last night. Every other event in the Ivy championships has a heat in the morning and a heat in the afternoon except the 1-mile freestyle. The event is so long and challenging, each swimmer only gets one shot.
Therefore, it is essential to be seeded in the first heat in order to be matched up against the best.
Last night, Holthaus hopefully recorded a time that will enable her to race against the top competition in the Ivy League.
"It depends on what other people in the league do," Holthaus said. "But that should ensure that I get into the fastest heat."
Holthaus' accomplishment was even greater considering the meet was not a main focus for the team and the non-stop strenuous training leading up to it.
"I was really happy," the captain said. "We've been training really hard these past couple of weeks, so I tried to think of the race as more of just a workout."
Clearly that strategy worked for her and now the whole team's focus is narrowing in on championships, which are four weeks away.
And a solid performance thus far is instilling hope in the team.
We're "looking forward to the end of the season," Holthaus said. "We think we can beat some teams we haven't beaten in a while."
