The Penn men's and women's swimming and diving teams successfully opened their season with wins against Lehigh and Rider at a tri-meet at Sheerr Pool on Saturday.
The men's team beat Rider 154-138 and Lehigh 132-105. The women dominated Lehigh 140-112.5 and Rider 153-130.
The women had an impressive showing in their season opener with five individual wins and several second-place finishes. Margot Newcomer (10:21.17), Theresa Altieri (10:22.22) and Lindsey Gottschalk (10:37.38) finished in the top three in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Jessica Aiello (1:56.81) and Cameron Villarreal (1:57.22) finished in first and second respectively in the 200-yard freestyle.
"We had our best lineups in the early part so we got off to a great start," Schnur said.
Stephanie Colson (25.13) and Laura Hotaling (25.16) finished first and second respectively in the 50-yard freestyle. Alison Bretherick (2:10.06), Tara Gillies (2:10.89) and Lauren Bergstrom (2:11.74) came in first, second and third in the 200-yard individual medley.
The women's team had four top-five finishes in the 200-yard butterfly -- Laura D'Erasmo, Theresa Altieri, Sara Aiello and Sarah Jeffers finished second through fifth, respectively. The women also had four top-five finishes in the 200-yard backstroke. Hayley Wolfgruber, Sarah Bargmann, Andrea DeLeon and Alison Bretherick finished second through fifth. Freshman Lauren Bergstrom won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 54.43 seconds.
The men's team won six events. Freshman John Gillette took first place in the 50-yard freestyle (21.56). Captain Pat Maloney won the 200-yard butterfly (1:55.39) Sophomore Pat Gallagher came first in the 100-yard freestyle (47.50) and Yuchi Zhang won the 200-yard breaststroke (2:07.73). Sophomore Devon Carr (4:43.19) won the 500 yard freestyle and junior Jason McGrath (4:48.70) came in second place.
The team of Gillette, Gallagher, Kevin Scott and Carr won the 400-yard relay to seal the victory for the Quakers.
"I was impressed with the way our men came back," Penn coach Michael Schnur said. "We were down pretty much the entire meet, but our second, third and fourth lineups came through."
"We won the meet without winning a lot of individual events," he said. "It really shows you the depth of our team."
Penn had a strong day on the one-meter diving board as well. Tyler Markman (229.95) finished second. On the women's side, Kenyon Lewis (212.35) and Janis Scanlon (199.60) came in first and second respectively.
"The potential for this team is very high," said Schnur. "We are going to be tough to beat."
The Quakers travel to Princeton on Friday to face the Tigers and Cornell.
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