Much of the focus during Penn's meet against La Salle last night was on one race, a showdown between each team's top swimmer - and former club teammates, to boot - in the 200-yard freestyle. La Salle's Sean Connors-McBride edged out Penn junior Pat Gallagher by .11 seconds to win the exciting race.
The Quakers would rebound, however, and go on to win the meet at La Salle 170-124.
The women's team had a similar result, defeating the Explorers, 169-128.
In the men's contest, La Salle (2-2) gained an early advantage by taking two of the first three events, including the tight 200-yard freestyle race.
"I got him last year, he got me this year," Gallagher said.
As the Explorers started off hot and gained momentum from that close victory, it looked as if the Red and Blue was in for a long night.
"When your best swimmer loses, you need someone to step up in the next event," coach Mike Schnur said.
That is exactly what the Quakers (3-3, 0-3 Ivy) did as they dominated the next three races, taking first and second in each, to take control of the meet.
Freshman Larkin Macdonald won the 100-yard backstroke and junior Yuchi Zhang claimed the 100-yard breaststroke for Penn. The biggest win of the three, though, according to Schnur, was junior Devon Carr's victory over Connors-McBride in the 200 butterfly.
The Explorers "were expecting to win the [200 butterfly], so once we took first and second in it, that was a huge momentum swing," Carr said.
"Basically, the meet was over at that point," Schnur added.
Schnur felt the meet was important for his team to bounce back after the losses over the weekend and as preparation for the Nike Kenyon Invitational, which is the main focus of the team's first semester.
"We were beaten so badly on Saturday that the guys knew this would be a little more fun for them and much more competitive," Schnur said. "They responded great."
After losing a close meet to rival Princeton Saturday, the Penn women's team (4-2, 1-2 Ivy) also responded by defeating the feisty Explorers (2-5).
Though La Salle put up a good fight, the Quakers were in control of the meet throughout.
"I think the La Salle girls competed great with us," Schnur said. "There was a lot of really good racing today."
As usual, it was Penn's super freshman class that had the greatest impact.
Stephanie Nerby won both the 100 and 200 butterfly, Lauren Brandes won the 50 freestyle and Andrea Balint won both the 100 freestyle and the 200 individual medley, edging out La Salle's standout freshman Shannon Duval by .01 seconds in the latter.
Schnur was also happy with the performances of less-heralded Quakers, such as Katharine Donahue. The junior had one of her best swims ever while placing third in the 500 freestyle.
"We had some really encouraging swims leading into the rest of the semester," the Penn coach said.
Also contributing to the Quakers' victory was senior diver Janis Scanlon, who qualified for NCAA zone meets with her best score of the year while placing first in one-meter competition.
One of the few highlights for La Salle was to be found in Duval's performance, who broke her own school record in the 100 breaststroke - on her first 100 of the 200 breaststroke race in 1:06.72.
Though Duval and Connors-McBride provided La Salle with the highlight performances of the night, it was the Quakers' overall depth that brought home the victory.
