Forget the Penn and Princeton rivalry.
When the women's swim team faces off against the Columbia Lions tonight, that's when the competition will get really heated.
"It is a great rivalry," said head coach Mike Schnur. "Neither team really likes each other a lot."
Two years ago, Penn lost to Columbia by a mere six points, when the winner was determined in the last event of the day, the 200-yard freestyle relay. The Lions won it by one-tenth of a second over the Quakers, giving Columbia enough points to beat Penn.
The Red and Blue then settled the score at their meet last year. They won 11 of 15 events en route to a 187.5 to 112.5 defeat of Columbia.
The rivalry extends beyond the pool. Both Ivy schools recruit the same kinds of players, meaning that some Lions may well have placed official visits to Penn, and vice versa.
This season, the Lions' strong freshman crop has propelled them to a 3-1 record, leaving the outcome of tonight's matchup in doubt.
"Columbia has swam better this fall than we have," said Schnur. "Plus, they're a good home team and we have to travel the day of the meet to their pool."
The only events so far this season in which Penn (4-1, 1-1 Ivy) has swum faster times than Columbia (3-1, 1-1) are the distance frees, the 200 fly, 100 back and 200 back.
On top of that, the Lions have two breaststrokers whom Schnur says "are on fire."
Yet, while Columbia has been off to a better start, Schnur has been pushing his players to produce results.
"Coach works us really hard in practice," sophomore Lauren Brandes said. "Some of us are broken down. Hopefully it'll pay off at the end of the season."
Schnur said, for his swimmers, "time doesn't matter, it's just who comes out on top."
He added, "I also want to see how my young swimmers like to race."
Schnur is hoping some of the 11 freshman on his squad can step up and fill the void of the graduated seniors.
The meet against Columbia will be the last swim meet before the Quakers take a month off from competition.
They'll spend 10 days over winter break training in Boca Raton, Fla.
But first, they want to defeat their nemesis from New York.
"The seniors on the team last year always talked about the rivalry with Columbia," Brandes said. "It's a very exciting event and this year will just be the same.
"Hopefully, we'll pull through and win."
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