PRINCETON, N.J. -- During the 400-yard freestyle relay, the final event of the Ivy League Women's Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday night, swimmers surrounded DeNunzio Pool, jumping and motioning for their teammates to swim faster.
Loyal parents and fans screamed, whistled and chanted for their respective teams.
Princeton's state-of-the-art score screen provided video close-ups from underwater and from their three-man camera crew.
And while all that was going on, Penn's foursome of sophomores Stephanie Colson and Jessica Aiello, freshman Amy Ottensmeyer and senior Katie Stores earned a fifth-place finish in the relay.
Harvard won the championship, ending Princeton's five-year reign, but Penn also made history, finishing in fifth place with 937.5 points.
"This is the highest finish we've ever had in school history," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "It's also the most points we've ever had -- we've been increasing points for the last five years in a row."
Last year, Columbia edged the Quakers by one point for fifth place, 937-936. On Saturday, the Red and Blue outswam Columbia by a much more convincing margin, 937.5-746.
"At the beginning of the season, our goal was to beat Columbia and finish fifth," Schnur said. "We swam great and we were in contention for third place with three events to go. We just fell a tiny bit short in the end."
"Penn is becoming a contender in swimming," sophomore distance swimmer Cammie Villarreal said. "The entire sophomore class made it to Ivies this year -- all eight of us. We'll be even stronger next year and hopefully we'll fill in some gaps from this year with new recruits."
Villarreal took fifth in the 1000 free, seventh in the 500 free and 15th in the 1650 free.
Freshman Megan Carlin finished third in the 100 breaststroke and fourth in the 200 breaststroke, breaking Penn records in both events.
"We were tough and we broke eight school records this week," Schnur said. "We had best times in four out of five relays, which is a great sign of depth."
The Red and Blue will enter next season with high hopes.
"Each year, we keep building and getting better," sophomore Alison Bretherick said.
"We should have another really strong team next year," sophomore Hayley Wolfgruber added.
"This was especially gratifying to me because we graduated seven school record holders last year," Schnur said. "We had our best team ever this year despite that loss. We had tremendous freshmen and the returning girls stepped up from last year."
