Penn men's swimming duo preps for NCAAs

Penn swimming has become accustomed to rewriting the record books over the last few years, and even marks that have stood for 44 years aren’t safe anymore.

For the first time since 1971, Penn will be sending two athletes to compete at the NCAA Swimming and Diving National Championships. Junior captain Chris Swanson is making his third trip to the championship, and this year he will be joined by fellow junior captain Eric Schultz, who will be making his first appearance on the national stage. Competition starts Thursday, March 26 and will run for three days, with the University of Iowa playing host to the country’s top collegiate swimmers.

“Any team can send one guy to nationals, and we’ve been blessed to have some really talented guys compete for us over the years,” coach Mike Schnur said. “But it says a lot more about your program when you can send multiple guys.

“Hopefully next year we can turn those two into six or seven, because we have a lot of other guys who were really close, and that’s just good for the entire program.”

Swanson will compete at nationals for the third time in both the 1650-yard and 500-yard freestyles, and enters this weekend’s meet seeded sixth and 32nd, respectively. The junior qualified in the 1650 with an NCAA A-cut time of 14:43.87 back in December at the Total Performance Invitational. Ever since, the junior has had his eyes set on the NCAA Championships. With a ninth place finish in last year’s mile race and an All-American honorable mention, the Tampa, Fla., native appears primed to take the next step towards a podium spot in this year’s race.

“I’m certainly feeling a lot more pressure this year, just because the expectations are show much higher than they have been the past two years, but I’m less nervous going in this year than when I was a freshman,” Swanson said.

“My first year I just remember looking at some of the big names and thinking about how far above me they were. But now that I’m starting to get a lot closer to that top end, it starts to be a little easier to just go in and focus on having a good race.”

According to Schnur, the junior is well on his way to becoming one of those “big names” in the not-so-distant future.

“Chris has trained great this year, he’s competed beautifully, and hopefully he will continue his progression,” Schnur said. “I believe Chris has the ability to be the top distance swimmer in America at some point, and it’s just a matter of him taking those steps that he needs to realize his potential. I expect him to continue doing what he’s been doing, and hopefully set himself up to be a title contender next year.”

In his first trip to nationals, Schultz is seeded 28th in the 50-yard freestyle, 33rd in the 200-yard freestyle, and 34th in the 1000-yard freestyle. The junior is also Penn’s school record holder over all three distances. Schultz is coming off a victory in the 200 at the Ivy Championships in February, and a second place finish in the 50 and 100 distances. After qualifying for the NCAA meet with a time of 19.54 in the 50 at Ivy Champs, Schultz will be looking to break into a top-16 spot in Iowa.

“The 50 is an event where anything can happen,” Schnur said. “If Eric can drop of a tenth of a second, he could make All-American, and in an event like this you never know.

“Eric is as good a 50 swimmer as there is outside the top few guys in the country, and even though this is his first time on a big national stage, I think it will be a lot of fun to watch.”

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