After a tense day of trading wins with Yale, the Penn women's swimming team needed to place first and second in the 400-yard freestyle relay - the day's last event - to tie the meet.
Unfortunately, the women finished first and third, and as a result, the Bulldogs beat the Quakers, 152-148, in the Penn-Yale-Dartmouth tri-meet in Hanover, N.H., on Saturday.
Penn emerged victorious against Dartmouth, 202.5-97.5.
While the Red and Blue (3-4, 3-4 Ivy) beat the Big Green (2-6, 1-4) with little effort, the matchup with Yale (4-2, 3-1) was a fight to the finish.
"It was like two heavyweight boxers," coach Mike Schnur said. "They'd punch us and we'd punch them."
All told, the Quakers won the 100 fly, the 200 individual medley and the freestyle relay.
"We made a great comeback in the end and almost pulled it out, but we just got flushed out," Schnur said. "It was a great effort on our part."
Junior Andrea Balint anchored the winning 400 freestyle relay team and also placed first in the 200 free, the 100 free and the 200 IM.
She only had five minutes between the 200 IM and the relay, yet she was still able to pull out a first place.
"She was still tired, and she killed herself and won the race. It was awesome," Schnur said. "She's really fun to watch."
One of Balint's teammates in the relay, freshman Felicia Leksono also won the 100 back and the 100 fly.
"It was really good because I was really motivated by the team," Leksono said. "We were all pumped up to go and try and win."
Going into the meet, the team focused on staying positive and heightening the intensity of the meet.
"We went into the meet telling each other to make sure we go into the races and try and win them, and if we do, we're going to make sure and show that we're happy," Leksono said.
Their positive attitude was necessary to keep the fight alive.
"It really came down to every girl on both teams scrapping for every yard they could," Schnur said. "It was a great competition between two evenly matched teams."
Even though Yale won in the end, Schnur loved the competitiveness of the meet.
"It was a dogfight," he said. "It was really exciting. It was a lot of fun."
