Breaking six school records would seem to be a good way for the Penn men's swimming team to shake up the standings.
Yet for it and the rest of the Ivy League, things remained very much the same.
Despite the new records, the Quakers could not improve on last year's mark as they finished eighth out of nine teams at this weekend's EISL championships. Host Princeton made it a clean sweep of Ivy League titles, adding the men's crown to last week's women's victory.
Despite not winning many races, the Tigers' overall depth was too much for the competition as they finished nearly 200 points ahead of second-place Harvard. The last time the two schools didn't finish in the top two spots at the Ivy League Championship meet was 1990.
Despite going undefeated in the dual-meet season and nearly sweeping all the relay events, Cornell finished fifth.
As for the Red and Blue, its 580.5 points did not tell the whole story as the team broke more school records then it had in ten years at one meet. New records included four relays and two individual races - James Fee in the 1000-yard freestyle and Pat Gallagher in the 100 freestyle.
Fee's performance broke a record that had been standing since 1989 as he finished at 9:21.48, good enough for 11th place and a US Nationals Meet qualifying mark.
"I was very excited," the freshman said. "One of my goals for the season was to break one of the distance records and I achieved it."
Penn coach Mike Schnur said he was especially proud that his team broke so many of the relay records, adding "It would have been cool though to sweep all the relays." The Quakers missed breaking the 400-yard freestyle relay record by 0.4 seconds.
Particularly exciting was the 200-yard freestyle relay, where the 3rd- through 5th-place teams were separated by only .01 seconds. Penn finished tied for fourth with Yale in the race.
Schnur was also thrilled that his team was able to beat Princeton in the 800-yard freestyle relay, a feat they haven't accomplished since 1996. The 6th-place 200-medley-relay team also made history as junior Devon Carr became the first Quaker ever to break 20 seconds in the freestyle leg.
"Some of the relay records we broke, the teams that held them finished second or third at this meet," Schnur said. "It shows how good the league is now."
Among the swimmers on the record-breaking relays, the only seniors were Alex Silvester and Ted Rainaud, which bodes well for next year's Quakers.
With an accomplished freshmen class coming in, the Quakers seem poised to break even more records in the future, and maybe even move up a place or two at next year's meet.
