Penn swimming and diving sweep Dartmouth, fall to host Yale at Ivy League tri-meet

Penn men's and women's swimming and diving opened 2020 by closing out their Ivy League tri-meet season. 

The Quakers kicked off the second half of their season in New Haven, Conn. with their final tri-meet against Yale and Dartmouth. While both the men’s and women’s teams were able to edge out the Big Green, they both also fell to the host Bulldogs. 

The women’s team (2-5, 2-4 Ivy) earned their second Ivy League victory of the season over Dartmouth (2-5, 1-3) by a margin of 170-130. However, the Quakers fell to undefeated Yale (6-0, 3-0), losing by a score of 217-83. 

The women achieved two first-place finishes, including a 1000-yard freestyle victory posted by sophomore Catherine Buroker with a time of 10:09.10. Buroker also finished fourth in the 500 free (5:03.49), just behind sophomore Grace Giddings, who had a time of 5:03.04 to finish third. 

The women’s other first-place finish was secured by senior Serena Xue in the 200 breaststroke, posting a time of 2:20.48. Xue was joined by sophomore Hannah Kannan, sophomore Monika Burzynska, and senior Emily Layne for the 200 medley relay; their time of 1:45.46 was enough to secure second place, but they were edged out of first by the Bulldogs. 

On the men’s side, while the Quakers (4-3, 3-3) were narrowly defeated by the Bulldogs (5-1, 2-1) by a score of 160-140, they were victorious over the Big Green (1-6, 0-4) by a margin of 195-105. The men’s team earned six first-place finishes atop the podium and showed off their depth of talent with 19 swimmers placing in the top three. 

Leading the charge for the Red and Blue with three individual first-place finishes was junior Sean Lee, posting victories in the 100 butterfly (47.85), 200 fly (1:47.34), and 200 individual medley (1:52.21). Lee was also a member of the 200 medley relay team that notched a first-place finish for Penn with a time of 1:30.78. 

Junior Boris Yang had a standout performance. In addition to helping the 200 medley relay team to victory alongside Lee, Yang notched the two remaining first-place finishes for the Quakers in the 100 breaststroke (56.83) and 200 breaststroke (2:02.69). Yang also finished milliseconds behind Lee in the 200 IM, securing second place with his time of 1:52.27. 

Freshman Jason Schreiber posted a pair of second-place finishes in the 100 breast (57.79) and 200 breast (2:03.05), finishing just behind Yang in both events and adding to the tally of Penn swimmers placing in the top three. 

Neither men’s nor women’s diving was able to finish atop the podium, but senior John-Michael Diveris finished second in the one-meter dive with a score of 274.75. Trevor Nelson finished just behind Diveris in third with a score of 271.95

The Quakers will be back in action next Saturday at Sheerr Pool to wrap up Ivy competition with a pair of dual meets against Harvard.