Swimming | Lords and Lady Jayhawks win

Don't underestimate the underclassmen.

At the Nike Invitational hosted by Kenyon College this weekend, Penn freshman Brendan McHugh received Co-swimmer of the Meet honors as he broke a pool record in the 1650-yard freestyle on Thursday, came in second in the 100-yard breaststroke on Friday, and finished off the weekend with first-place finishes in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard individual medley on Saturday.

Bolstered by the Sicklerville, N.J native, the men's team finished second in the invitational with 1,395.5 points. Kenyon won with 1437.

The women's team, meanwhile, got its best performance of the weekend not from a freshman, but from junior Stephanie Nerby. She finished second in the 1650 free on Thursday then set a pool record in the 500-yard free two days later.

But despite Nerby's performance, the women finished fourth with 663.5 points. Kansas dominated the field with 1,319, almost 450 points above second-place Kenyon.

After Thursday, both the men and women were ahead of their respective competition - Kenyon, Davidson, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins and Colgate for both teams as well as the Jayhawks for the women.

"The real [lack of] depth of our team came out Friday and Saturday," coach Mike Schnur said. "It was a little deceptive that first night."

But the Kansas women thrashed everyone on Saturday, placing first in every single event. With the help of senior freestyler Maria Mayrovich, who won two individual events and was part of two winning relays, the Jayhawks bumped the Quakers into third.

The men, however, fell to second, as they trailed Kenyon by four points after day two.

But the Lords managed to rack up five wins on the last day, solidifying a first-place finish. Due to the sheer number of swimmers on its roster, Kenyon was able to beat the Quakers into exhaustion.

In a normal championship meet, each swimmer only races in one event. However at the Gambier, Ohio event there weren't any restrictions. On Saturday, the Penn men swam up to five events.

"It was a good experience for the guys to get up there when they were a little bit uncomfortable having to do all those races," Schnur said.

With the Nike Invitational now behind them, the Quakers' focus turns to another invitational. Both teams will face Ivy League rival Brown at the Florida Atlantic Invitational on Jan. 4 and then the women will race at Harvard on Jan. 10.

For the women (1-2, 1-2 Ivy), the winter break results will depend largely on the health of their upperclassmen. Lauren Bergstrom, Naomi Delphin, Sara Coenen and Lindsay Gottschalk are all recovering from injuries.

Brown's women's team (1-0, 1-0) will arrive only one day before the meet, while the Quakers will be training in Florida for the week prior.

"We'll be a little bit tired, but I like our opportunities for that meet," Schnur said.

They will be even more worn out by the time they face Harvard (2-0, 2-0) because they'll only have one full day of rest between Florida and their departure for Cambridge.

But Penn cannot afford to be affected by fatigue; Harvard is No. 2 in the conference and No. 22 in the nation.

"It will be a good opportunity to test where we are," Schnur said.

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