At 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the sun rose over campus to begin a day in which the Quaker swimmers were to face Rider. The typical Penn student was fast asleep.
Evidently, Penn swimmers are not typical students.
Though most of the campus was quiet, all of the women and a few of the men swimmers spent their Wednesday morning in the pool, training as they would during a regular practice despite their plans to swim competitively later that day.
The early morning training did not prevent the swimmers from dominating their match at Rider; the women surpassed their opponents, 147-93, and the men won, 133-108.
"Everyone was a little tired, but we all stepped it up," said sophomore Stephanie Colson, who took the 100-yard backstroke. "I forgot that I had been up at 6:30. I put it in the back of my mind."
The women's team (5-4, 3-4 Ivy) predicted and expected the success that they encountered at Rider. It was with the knowledge of his team's advantage that coach Mike Schnur decided to hold a full practice the morning before the meet.
"I knew the women would win, so I wanted to challenge them a little by getting them up this morning so that they were tired for the meet," Schnur said. "They passed with flying colors."
Though confident in the men's squad (3-5, 1-5), Schnur was aware of the trap Rider could present, and therefore the men were exempted from practice yesterday morning. Two swimmers -- freshmen Devon Carr and Pat Gallagher -- did, however, choose to train.
Even under such stress, the pair performed especially well. Carr won the 50-yard freestyle, and set pool records in both the 200-yard fly and 500-yard fly. Gallagher broke the Rider pool record for the 1650-yard freestyle event by almost a minute. He also earned a win as a member of the 200-yard free relay team.
"The two guys who won the most events both swam this morning, so it didn't hurt them," Schnur said.
Not only did the Quakers emerge victorious, but they broke a total of eight pool records.
"We broke eight pool records out of 13 events," Schnur said. "It was the fastest meet that ever happened in their pool."
Coming off such an accomplishment, both the women's and men's teams are looking ahead to their quickly-approaching Ivy League and Eastern College Athletic Conference title meets.
For the women, the next time they will face any Ivy League opponents will be at the end of February at the Ivy League Championships.
"We are right on track [for Ivies]," Colson said. "Almost all of our hard work is behind us and I think we are in a great position."
The men are set to take a two-week hiatus from conference opposition, which will last until their meet against Harvard on Feb. 12 -- their final meet before the ECAC championships Feb. 24.
