After Penn earned victories in diving and the 200-yard breaststroke, the men's swim meet against Brown came down to the last event, the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Teammates and fans for both teams surrounded Sheerr Pool on all sides, screaming, chanting and motioning for the competitors to swim faster. In the end, the Bears pulled through and finished first and third, earning the necessary points to clinch the victory, 129-114.
The Quakers' quartet of junior Kevin Scott, sophomore Stephen Heyer and freshmen Devon Carr and Pat Gallagher put together a time of 3:07.94, good for second place. With the loss, the Penn men's team fell to 1-4 and 0-4 in the Ivy League.
The women's team also fought to the end, winning the 400-yard freestyle relay, the last event. Senior Kathryn Stores, junior Laura Hotaling and sophomores Jessica Aiello and Stephanie Colson finished in 3:34.06. In the end, Brown prevailed, 124-117.
"We swam a great meet," Penn coach Mike Schnur said about the women. "We battled as well as ever and just missed out by a few points."
The women combined for five first-place finishes. In the 200-yard freestyle, Stores, Aiello and sophomore Margot Newcomer swept the race, taking the top three spots. Stores finished with a time of 1:55.03, her best this season.
Key for Penn (3-3, 2-3 Ivy) was its top two finishes in the long distance events, the 1000 and the 500-yard free. Sophomore Cammie Villarreal won the 1000 with a time of 10:17.41. Newcomer finished the 500 in 5:07.39 to earn the victory and 11 points for the Red and Blue.
According to Schnur, senior Maureen Schriver had one of the strongest swims of the day, earning season best times and crucial second-place finishes in both the 500 and the 1000.
On the men's side, the Quakers took the top three spots in the 200-yard butterfly. Carr won the event with a 1:52.70 finish. Junior Pat Maloney and sophomore Joe Griffith finished second and third, respectively.
In the second-to-last event, freshman Yuchi Zhang edged a victory over Brown's Matthew DelMastro by just .15 seconds.
"Yuchi has taken over our breaststroke crew," Schnur said. "He's had a beautiful year."
In diving, junior Tyler Markman captured wins in both the one-meter and three-meter events, with 259.43 and 277.13 points, respectively.
"Tyler's diving kept us in the meet," Schnur said.
Sophomore Nick Corsano finished second in one-meter diving and third at three meters.
"Today we remained consistent," Penn diving coach Julie Van Deusen said. "We managed to pull through for the team."
Before the end of break, the diving team traveled to the University of Georgia to train and compete against some of the top teams in the nation, such as Auburn, last year's national champion.
"We competed for three days with some huge swim schools," Van Deusen said. "Our divers got to see how hard other teams work, which we will try to instill in our work ethic."
Next Saturday, the Quakers will travel to New Haven, Conn. to face Yale and Dartmouth.
