It was the meet they were looking forward to all semester, and both the Penn men's and women's swim teams lived up to expectations.
The men's team bested four opponents to take the Kenyon Invitational title while the women took second at the championship format meet in Gambier, Ohio.
The men had what was probably their best meet so far this season, as they took the crown by compiling 1149 points. Second place was the host team, Kenyon College, with 988. The Quakers trailed after the first four events but were in control of the lead for the rest of the meet.
"I'm thrilled," coach Mike Schnur said. "It was the best meet we've had in years."
Schnur was happy to take first, but said the most important part was how his team competed and was able to post several career-best times, not that they won the meet.
After several years of coming close, the Quakers were able to break the school record in the 200-yard freestyle relay, winning the event with a time of 1:22.72.
Other standout performances came from Pat Gallagher, who set a personal best as well as a Kenyon pool record in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:38.93. Freshman James Fee had a breakout meet in the distance races, winning the 500-yard freestyle and placing second in the 1650.
Devon Carr, Joe Griffith and Ryan Dierberg took the first three places in the 200-yard butterfly and Alex Silvester took first in the 100-yard breaststroke at 57.02.
"I think we exceeded expectations," Silvester said. "We had some amazing swims.
The women's team finished only 19 points behind Kenyon College, who won with 1026 points.
Schnur said that Kenyon's victory did not necessarily mean that it was the superior team.
"Kenyon had fifteen more women entered than us; we just couldn't overcome the sheer numbers they had," he said.
The coach believes that Kansas, which took third, was probably the best team in the meet but could not win in the championship format because they did not enter as many swimmers as their opponents.
Though they weren't victorious, the women experienced similar success as the men in the pool. They broke the school record in the 400-yard freestyle relay, winning with a time of 3:26.42.
Freshman Sara Coenen won the 200-yard backstroke for the Quakers while Stephanie Nerby and Tara Gillies took second and third in the 200 butterfly, respectively.
Schnur said the meet was especially important because of its championship format, with both preliminary races and finals.
"We proved that we're a good championship team," Schnur said. "We may not be much of a dual meet team, but when it's important and it's time to swim fast, they really stepped up."
The Quakers, who were rested coming into the meet, swam as though they were in championship form.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to maintain some confidence and be able to do it when we're not rested second semester," Schnur said.
