In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the final event of Saturday's swim meet, only the swimmers in lane five were introduced by name over the loudspeaker. The foursome did not win the race, but they still received the loudest applause. Seniors Chris Perez, Brian Funk, Noah Pink and Patrick Brugh were about to start their final collegiate race at Sheerr Pool.
The men's swim team fell to league powerhouse Harvard in its final dual meet of the season, 200-99. Harvard extended its undefeated mark in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League to 8-0, while Penn fell to 5-6 overall and 2-6 in the EISL.
"We did a little better than I thought we would," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "We had a couple of first-place finishes, and more second- and third-place finishes than we had last year. Harvard has four or five guys who are legitimate NCAA finalists."
Senior Lowell Lamb earned the first win for the Quakers in the 400-yard individual medley, with a time of 4:16.69. Lamb also finished second in the 200 breaststroke.
"This was our last chance to race before the [Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships]," Lamb said. "It was more for fun. We mixed the lineup a little and some guys got to swim some events they normally don't swim."
In addition to Lamb, junior Neville Mitchell won the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:58.87.
In diving, sophomore Nick Corsano earned two third-place finishes while junior Tyler Markman finished second at three meters. Senior Guillermo Marx finished out his home diving career with a fourth-place finish at three meters, beating Harvard's Lucas Sanders, and a fifth place finish at one meter.
"The seniors were a great bunch of guys," Schnur said. "It was nice to give them their honors and we had a lot of fun together."
For Brugh, Saturday's meet marked his last competitive swim as a Quaker, since he will not compete in either of the championship meets.
The rest of the seniors, along with the remainder of the team, will now focus on either the ECAC Championships in Pittsburgh on Feb. 24-26 or the EISL Championships in Cambridge, Mass. on March 3-5.
The swimmers will soon begin to taper, decreasing their practice intensity to conserve energy and increase muscle mass for the championship meets.
On the other hand, the divers will continue to practice fully until the championships.
"Unlike swimming, we need to practice hard until the championships," Penn diving coach Julie Van Deusen said. "We will continue to drill them and get in as many dives as we can at practice. Only a few points will separate each place in the finals."
