Sometimes, even when some individuals turn in their best performances of the year, a better team simply overcomes. For the Penn men's swimming team yesterday, Columbia was simply a little bit better.
In a meet filled with great swims, the Quakers lost to Columbia, 143-100. The loss puts Penn at an even 5-5 for the season.
The meet, however, was considered a success for the team.
"We swam well," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "Columbia is just better than we are."
The best swim of the night, according to Schnur, was by senior Andrew Trout.
"Andrew Trout's 50 was awesome. In my 11 years, the best college swim in this pool, I mean one of the best swims we've ever had."
This swim was one of the highlights for the Penn team on a night when the Quakers were simply overmatched.
Penn started out the meet strong with a first-place finish for the 400-yard medley relay team of freshman Teddy Rainaud and sophomores Jon Kaufman, Pat Maloney and Kevin Scott.
Trout and Scott took first and second, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle while Maloney took first in the 200-yard backstroke.
Scott was cautiously optimistic about the team's swimming.
"We swam well overall today," he said. "But a lot of guys were tired and beat up."
This meet was just a tuneup for the next four weeks. In the upcoming weeks, the Quakers will swim all of their most important meets of the season.
The first meet is against Harvard, which Schnur said is "one of the best teams in the country, while knowing that Penn "will have its hands full."
The swimmers, however, are much more open about their future competition.
Scott was optimistic about Easterns, which are coming up in three weeks.
"We've had a little bit of rest, but our taper starts now," he said. "It'll be exciting to see what this team is swimming like in three weeks."
As the Quakers near the end of the season, they are preparing for what they have worked for all year long, the Ivy League championships.
The championships "are a crapshoot," according to Schnur, who said Penn would "be thrilled" to match its fifth-place finish from last year.
Columbia 143, PENN 100
400 MR -- Penn (Rainaud, Kaufman, Maloney, Scott) 3:29.29
1000 Free -- Bazylewicz (Columbia) 9:34.31
200 Free -- White (Columbia) 1:42.19
50 Free -- Trout (PENN) 20.77
200 IM -- Collins (Columbia) 1:53.45
200 Fly -- Collins (Columbia) 1:51.55
100 Free -- White (Columbia) 46.18
200 Back -- Maloney (PENN) 1:53.47
500 Free -- Bazylewicz (Columbia) 4:40.54
200 Breast -- Nelson (Columbia) 2:11.33
400 FR -- Columbia (Ingram, White, Emory, Guerin) 3:08.91
1m Diving -- Troob (Columbia) 275.47
3m Diving -- Markman (PENN) 277.87
