PRINCETON, N.J. — Keeping the ball rolling.
After breaking several pool records to start the regular season, Penn women’s swimming and diving continued rewriting the history books, breaking five total program records at the Big Al invitational held from Dec. 4-6. The team also claimed its second-straight team title at the meet.
“The women have been phenomenal. There’s nothing more satisfying as a coach. When you see women finish their race and have that giant smile on their face, that’s the whole reason we do this,” coach Mike Schnur said. “Every single woman on our team contributes at meets and at practice.”
The schools at the mid-season meet included Princeton, Columbia, and Penn as well as Utah and Cornell in the diving events.
From the first race, the Quakers set the tone for an impressive showing.
In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Penn A relay squad touched the wall in a time of 1:30.92, which placed second and broke the program record — the longest standing one — by over half a second. The relay team was led off by reigning Ivy League champion in the 100 free and sophomore butterfly/free specialist Kayla Fu followed by sophomore free/breaststroke specialist Amy Qin, senior fly/free specialist Amber Smith, and freshman fly/backstroke specialist Brianna Cong.
“[Fu] led off [and] to see her coming in with such speed. I’m like ‘I want to keep that lead,’” Qin said. “And then obviously watching the other swimmers swim in our relay finish really strong, it’s so hype, and really rewarding. I think we just give off a really good energy.”
After that history-making performance, Quakers from across the roster kept the momentum going in the events immediately following.
Qin and junior breaststroke specialist Kate Handley completed a 1-2 finish in the 50 breast. The meet notably featured the 50s in the specialty events and the 100 individual medley for the first time. Senior captain and free/IM specialist Anna Moehn and senior distance free specialist Sydney Bergstrom went 1-2 in the 500 free right after. Junior back/breast/IM specialist Katya Eruslanova lowered her own program record in the 200 IM en route to a third-place finish with a time of 1:59.26.
On the second day, the finals session once again started with a similar bang as the Quakers broke another program record in the 200 medley relay. Hitting like a sense of deja-vu, the Quakers had dominant podium finishes across several events. Fu clocked in a time of 53.12 in the 100 fly with sophomore fly specialist Maggie Hu finishing in second, and Handley and junior breast/IM specialist Meredith Holcomb also led a 1-2 finish in the 100 breast. Moehn won the 200 free by over a second with two Quakers tying for third.
“It’s like a snowball effect when someone does well on the first day and everyone’s saying ‘Good job. You did really well.’ It trickles down,” Qin said. “Everyone else wants to swim well, everyone else wants to swim fast.”
The most impressive individual performance of the second day was junior fly/back specialist Kate Levensten’s record-breaking performance in the 100 back.
Levensten — who is also a former staffer for The Daily Pennsylvanian — touched the wall in a time of 52.77 during the preliminary round, smashing the prior program record of 53.57. She followed up that performance by dropping another sub-53 time during finals to claim the win. Qin put up another strong performance to finish in third.
“Levensten has been having a great week. She had a great fall. She’s getting mature now. She’s understanding how to be great all the time,” Schnur said.
On the third and final day, the women’s winning ways continued. The Quakers distance group shined once again with Bergstrom and Moehn going 1-2 respectively in the 1650 free, notably ahead of United States Olympic Trials qualifier and Princeton star IM/free/fly specialist Chloe Kim. Levensten shined in the 200 back with another win with Cong following in third.
And the women ended the meet how they started: making history. The women’s 400 free relay of Cong, Fu, Qin, and Smith notched another program record en route to a third-place finish in the event.
The men’s team delivered solid individual showings on the first day. Sophomore breaststroke specialist Watson Nguyen made the first splash of the evening in the Thursday finals by winning the 50 breast, ahead of Princeton breaststroke specialist Keian Lam by almost a second. Not long after, junior IM specialist Peter Whittington made a second-place finish in the 200 IM, keeping up his consistent performance in the event.
On the second day of the meet, Whittington notched another win in the 400 IM finals.
“If I compare to where I was this time last year, I was about the same, or actually a little bit faster. So I feel like, you know, if I look at the bigger picture, it's, I’m in a pretty good spot right now. I just need to get back to training and continue working hard.” Whittington said.
The 200 medley relay squad of sophomore back/free specialist Eddie Jin, Nguyen, senior fly/breaststroke specialist Alex Fu, and senior free/fly specialist Xavier Hill anchored a second place standing with a time of 1:26.94. Later in the session, the 800 free relay team notched Penn’s second silver finish of the night.
The Quakers reeled in one more round of individual highlights on the final day as Whittington captured a victory in the 200 breast with Nguyen less than two tenths of a second behind for silver. Jin hit second place in the 100 free, extending what has been one of his most reliable events this season.
After the winter break, Penn swimming and diving will go on its annual training trip before returning to Sheerr Pool to battle Yale on Jan. 10, 2026.
