Needing a pick-me-up, the Penn men’s swimming team won its first meet of the season to end 2010 on a good note.
The Quakers were the quickest in the pool Saturday during the Total Performance Invitational at Kenyon, defeating five other teams in the victory.
The women also took first place, scoring with 1,443 points. They topped Kenyon for a second straight year.
With a total of 1,600 points throughout the three-day meet, the Quakers’ closest competition was runner-up Kenyon, who finished with 1,482.5 points.
Junior Brendan McHugh helped lead Penn (1-4, 0-3 Ivy) to victory with first place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard breast, 200-yard Individual Medley and 400-yard I.M.
McHugh’s time of 3:53.64 in the men’s 400 I.M. broke a school record which had stood since 1991. Meanwhile, sophomore Nick Johnson broke an 18-year old school record with his first-place time of 49.95 in the 100-yard backstroke.
“I think that we finally showed our potential at this meet,” McHugh said.
Along with the decisive individual performances, the extreme depth and overall physical toughness of the team gave the coaching staff reasons to look forward to the rest of the season.
“We have a lot of guys that swam superbly in things that I really didn’t expect them to swim that well in,” coach Mike Schnur said. “It kind of opens up some more opportunities for us at the Ivy Championship meet.”
The endurance showed by the swimmers over the course of the grueling three-day meet also was a promising sign for Schnur.
“Saturday night, when they should have been really tired and really beat up, still went really well,” he said.
With a month until their next meet during their Florida training trip, the team will have ample time to soak in the lessons learned this weekend — lessons that will be vital when the season picks up in earnest in the New Year.
“They saw how well they all can swim,” Schnur said. “And hopefully they’ll get the confidence to be able to do this when they’re not rested, when they’re a little more tired in January and February, and that will carry on into the Ivy Championship meet.”
McHugh agrees with this outlook on the future.
“Things are looking great for Ivies, which is where it matters,” he said.
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