As he prepared to take off in the 200-meter breaststroke, Penn sophomore Matt Blaszko felt a tremendous pressure. Earlier in the meet he had raced to victory in the 800-meter freestyle, but that was now in the distant past.
His present task was to once again achieve a first-place finish in a race, which as Penn coach Mike Schnur predicted, would be necessary to ensure a Quakers win over the opposing Navy squad.
The gun sounded, the swimmers sped off, and 2:24 later, Blaszko emerged victorious, as did his team, 123-120.
Schnur praised Blaszko's performance on Saturday, saying it "was his best of the year by far."
But the sophomore's accomplishments were only a small part of a meet which was primarily dominated by seniors.
"Our senior men were great, and so were Navy's," Schnur said. "It was really a lot of fun to watch because they've known each other for a long time."
Senior captain Shaun Lehrer recognized many of his opponents' faces, in particular that of Navy captain Marshall Boyd. When the two swimmers had faced off during the past two years, the winner always came from the team that was at home.
So at Navy this year, Lehrer was aware of his history with Boyd and very conscious of the opposing captain's position in the 400-meter freestyle relative to his own.
"In the 300, I saw he was a little bit behind me, and in the 400 he got even closer to me," Lehrer said. "I knew he would be really strong, especially on the last 50."
In the extremely exciting 400-meter freestyle, Lehrer broke the precedent by beating Boyd at his home pool by just two-hundredths of a second.
The rest of the men's team also swam very well, picking up three more first-place finishes in addition to Blaszko's and Lehrer's, bringing its total to six for the day.
"If you win six events, it's pretty much impossible to lose a meet," Schnur said.
That being said, the odds also seemed in Penn's favor during the women's meet.
The female Quakers not only matched the men with six first- place finishes, but also captured second place in the same six races on their way to a 183-116 victory.
Schnur believes that the team was successful in exploiting Navy's weaknesses and capitalizing on every opportunity.
"We had some pretty good momentum," Schnur said. "When we finished first, second and third in the 50-[meter] free, that basically was the ball game."
The Quakers' sprinters are among the best in the league, and they showed it on Saturday. Laura Hotaling, Kathryn Stores and Stephanie Colson all came through at this pivotal point in the meet.
Also victorious was Cameron Villarreal, who outswam the competition in the 200-meter freestyle.
"It's really good for the team that everyone could step it up," Villarreal said. "Even though we're all tired after training hard all week."
Both the men and women's teams will continue their rigorous workouts, hoping that next Saturday they can overcome Army, which certainly goes through its own brand of training.
