Two teams brought home two victories.
Penn swimming and diving successfully defended Sheerr Pool against Brown on Saturday. The men notched their first victory of the season in their second meet. With the win, the women's side improved to a 4-0 record ahead of mid-season competition.
“Very even teams every time and a lot of fun,” coach Mike Schnur told The Daily Pennsylvanian post-meet. “[Brown’s] a team that’s worthy of respect … and we really enjoy competing against them.”
Sophomore butterfly/freestyle specialist Kayla Fu shone once again, dominating the sprint freestyle events in the 169-131 victory. On the men's side, another consistent performer who delivered in the freestyle events was sophomore backstroke/freestyle specialist Eddie Jin. The transfer also led off both winning relays in the 157-143 win.
“Biggest thing I did was just bring my teammates up and just be ready,” Jin said. “Be ready to fight to win.”
The successes were punctuated by a familiar voice on deck as Olympian, former Penn swimmer, and Wharton and Engineering senior Matt Fallon served as the announcer for the meet.
The Quakers started strong in the women’s 200-yard medley relay, which became a showdown between the Quakers' A and B squads. The B team surged ahead in the final stretch to take first with a time of 1:41.74 minutes, with the A team close behind with 1:41.97. The men’s A team matched the energy by winning their race with a time of 1:29.98.
The women’s team racked up more points with impressive win from senior freestyle/individual medley specialist Anna Moehn in the 1000-yard freestyle. Moehn took the lead early in the race and touched home with a time of 10:03.29, finishing over 4 seconds ahead of Brown freestyle/backstroke specialist Natalie Garre, the current NCAA Division III record holder in the mile.
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“There’s a lot of time alone with your thoughts,” Moehn said. “But in those long races … when you need that extra boost of motivation, it’s thinking of your teammates in those moments.”
Senior butterfly/backstroke specialist Kate Levensten put points on the board with a win in the 100-yard backstroke. Earlier this season, Levensten, who is also a former DP staffer, broke the pool record twice in the same week in this event.
In the 200 backstroke, freshman butterfly/backstroke specialist Brianna Cong smashed the pool record by over two seconds for the win, with Levensten also under the mark from 2021.
In the sprint freestyle events, Kayla Fu showed out by winning the 50-yard freestyle in 22.67 and the 100-yard freestyle in 49.81.
The men’s team picked up the pace in the butterfly and breaststroke events.
Freshman butterfly/individual medley specialist Henry Guo won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:48.76 and led a Quaker podium sweep. Junior individual medley specialist Peter Whittington and freshman butterfly/individual medley specialist Max Malakhovetz followed in second and third, respectively.
The men’s team secured another sweep of the podium in the 100-yard butterfly. Sophomore butterfly/breaststroke/individual medley specialist Jeffrey Hou touched the wall first with a time of 49.01, and teammates Guo and senior butterfly/breaststroke specialist and captain Alex Fu took second and third place, respectively. Alex Fu is notably the older brother of Kayla Fu.
“It’s my teammates, they put me in that spot to go fast,” Alex Fu said. “We’re a lot more … driven to win this year — that’s showing in our races.”
Sophomore breaststroke specialist Watson Nguyen won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 55.15 and finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke, where Whittington took first at 2:01.62.
Sophomore diver Rachel Yang snagged a victory in the 1-meter with a score of 275.40. Brown men swept both the one-meter and three-meter dives.
Although the women secured a solid lead and first-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay, the men’s relay came down to the wire.
The Quakers were head-to-head with the Bears right from the jump. Junior freestyle/backstroke/butterfly specialist Liam Campbell’s third leg made up the difference, pulling Penn slightly forward. In the end, it was Fu’s anchor that brought the victory home at 2:59.68 with less than a second to spare.
“We had four blazing fast legs. Brown had three,” Schnur said. “Our guys were really frustrated that we lost last week to Columbia, who's a terrific team, and we had a good week of practice. … The difficult part is now we do it all over again next weekend.”
Both women's and men's teams will hit the road for the first time this season on Saturday to battle Cornell and Princeton in a tri-meet in Ithaca, N.Y.
