Since its season began, the team has focused on one meet.
And the time has come for the Penn women's swim team.
From today until Saturday, the Ivy League Championship Meet will be held at Princeton's Denunzio Pool.
Unlike most Ancient Eight sports, the swimming champion is not determined by the regular season. Instead, this single meet determines who will win the Frank Keefe Trophy, which goes to the league's champion.
Because of the significance, the Quakers (12-4, 4-3 Ivy League) have been focusing on it since the start of the season.
"I know that the team is very ready for this meet," senior tri-captain Stephanie Colson said. "We have been training hard all year [for it] and our work will definitely pay off this weekend."
"Everyone on the team is really excited now that the championships are here," Cammie Villarreal, another senior tri-captain said. "This is what we've been waiting all year to do, so we're really pumped up."
The Quakers aim to finish third at the meet. Since women's swimming became an Ivy League sport in 1977, only four schools have won a championship meet, with Harvard (four times), Brown (seven times) and Princeton (13 times) dominating.
If Penn accomplishes this goal, it will have its highest finish ever. Last year's fourth place is currently the Quakers' best all-time result.
"It would be a great accomplishment," head coach Mike Schnur said of finishing third. "But to be honest, I'm more worried with getting every woman to perform her best. We don't go in planning points, we just hope everyone gets their best times. There's no defense in swimming. So if we swim as well as we're capable of, and don't get third, then we'll still
accept that."
Besides perennial favorites Princeton and Harvard, who have won the last seven and all but four Ivy League Championships since 1988, Yale and Columbia should be heavy competition for the Quakers. In dual meets the Quakers were 1-3 against these four teams, with the sole win coming against the Lions.
The three teams to which Penn fell finished in the top three in the regular season meets and the Quakers finished fourth. The Tigers (9-1, 6-0) beat out the Crimson (7-2, 6-1) and the Elis (8-2, 5-2). Harvard's sole loss was to the Tigers, and Yale only lost to the two teams above them.
In addition to an overall third-place finish, the Quakers can potentially make history by finishing among the top two in any relay.
"Our relays should be very competitive," Schnur said "We've never finished higher than third in any relay in the history of the event, and I think this year we'll break that streak. I think we have some good opportunities to do better than third."
Besides quality opponents, the Quakers also must contend with the tricky format, which features preliminary races in the morning and championship races in the evening.
The Quakers only need to beat one of the three teams that finished above them in the regular season to accomplish their goal. Judging by the atmosphere in the locker room, they seem ready to do so.
"This format is tiring, but we've had plenty of practice for it," Villarreal said. "The Kenyon [Invitational] had a similar format, and swimming against Brown and then Colgate on back-to-back days really helped us. It's something that we're prepared to do."
"It's nothing we can't handle."
"The team as a whole seems very determined to finish the season out with a bang," Colson said.
Shattering the history books and finishing third for the first time ever - either would certainly count as a bang.
