None of the current members of the men's swimming team has ever tasted a winning record in the Ivy League.
But Penn (3-3, 2-3 Ivy) has a chance to eclipse that .500 mark for the first time since the 1990-91 season with a pair of wins against Yale (2-2, 1-1) and Dartmouth (0-4, 0-3) on Saturday at Hanover, N.H.
"That's something really exciting that doesn't happen all the time," junior freestyler Kyle Loughran said. "That really motivates the team, and we have to make sure we're focusing on our goals."
Though the Quakers are optimistic, they expect Yale to be especially competitive, thanks to Bulldogs senior freestyler and backstroker Alex Righi, who placed second in the 50-yard freestyle in the 2008 NCAA championships. He also barely missed qualifying for the Olympics last year.
"You can't really stop Alex," Loughran said. "You have to just let him do what he's going to do."
Even though the men know that they will not be able to compete against Righi, they still believe that a win is within their reach.
"We're not really worried about him because he's way too good for us," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "Whatever he swims he'll beat us. We just have to maximize our opportunities on all the other events."
In events against swimmers like Righi, the Quakers' men will try to take second, third and fourth places to rack up as many points as possible.
While Dartmouth may also present a challenge, Penn has recent history on its side. They have defeated the Big Green in each of the past four seasons.
On the women's side, the Quakers (2-3, 2-3) expect a well-matched meet, with tough competition from both Dartmouth (2-3, 1-2) and Yale (2-2, 1-1).
Last year the Red and Blue lost to Yale, but beat Dartmouth "pretty easily," according to Schnur.
Despite those results, Schnur felt that Dartmouth was the superior team, thus displaying the parity in the Ivy League.
"We and Yale were equally bad last year," said Schnur "They were bad. We were bad. Dartmouth was good."
Schnur expects both teams to have improved from last year, and he hopes that the Quakers women, who have yet to show their full potential, will step up.
"We're a very deep team, but we just haven't gotten those first places yet," said sophomore Carey Stauder, who swims the individual medley and fly events.
Stauder looks to junior flyer Ainsley Cookingham and junior freestyler Stephanie Nerby to score high for her team.
After last week's loss to Harvard, Schnur wants his team to pose a real challenge in Hanover.
"We'd like to get out there and race with the Yale women, try to assert ourselves a little more," Schnur said.
