Sophomore slump is not in sophomore butterfly/freestyle specialist Kayla Fu’s vocabulary.
After notching a pool record in Penn women’s swimming and diving’s season opener last Saturday, Fu once again etched her name in the history books. Fu smashed the 100-yard freestyle pool record — originally set in 1990 — by nearly a second in a 179-115 victory against Villanova on Wednesday.
Fu’s new pool record is her second this week and in the event that she is the reigning Ivy League champion in. Fu also swept the sprint freestyle events, winning the 50-yard free and 100-yard free, and anchored the winning 200-yard medley relay.
“My goals [this season] are mainly just to have fun for my swims,” Fu told The Daily Pennsylvanian last Saturday. “A lot of times [I] let the pressure get to me. But this year, I'm really trying to focus on the team and just try to have fun with what I'm doing.”
Unlike Saturday, Fu was not the only Quaker to make some history. Junior butterfly/backstroke specialist Kate Levensten also added a pool record to her resume in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.28, slipping under the old mark by 0.01 seconds. Levensten — who is also a former DP staffer — headlined a 1-2-3 finish in the event en route to that record. Levensten is starting off the season hot, notching times only 0.18 seconds off her career-best in the event set at the 2024 Ivy League championships. Freshmen butterfly/backstroke specialist Brianna Cong and backstroke specialist Connie Wang rounded out the top three in the event.
Overall, Penn continued its strong momentum from last week, winning 13 of 16 events. Senior distance freestyle specialist Anna Boeckman took home her second-straight victory in the 1,000-yard freestyle for the dominant distance group. Another member of that group, senior freestyle/individual medley specialist Anna Moehn, also shined — notching two wins in the 200-yard and 500-yard free.
On the specialty events side, junior breaststroke specialist Kate Handley is filling the shoes of now-graduated Izzy Pytel — the program record holder in both breaststroke events — nicely. Handley outraced four-time Big East champion Villanova breaststroke/individual medley specialist Winnie Jalet for the win in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Senior diver Sadie Howard swept both the one-meter and three-meter dives for the second meet in a row and led another Red and Blue podium sweep in the one-meter dive.
RELATED:
Kayla Fu breaks pool record in 100-yard butterfly to open Penn women’s swimming and diving season
Young talent also impressed once again. Wang touched the wall first in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:01.13, and Cong won the 100-yard fly with a time of 55.44, leading another 1-2-3 Red and Blue finish.
It won’t be too long before the Penn community sees the team back in the water. Penn women’s swimming opens Ivy competition this Friday — their third meet in a week — against Columbia, then will take a week off before battling Brown on Nov. 15.
