As the country prepares for the Rio Olympics later this summer, an unprecedented delegation from Penn is in currently trying to fight for places on the United States’ swimming roster.

Every senior hopes for a storybook ending when they get ready to compete for the last time, and that’s just what Penn men's swimming senior Chris Swanson got at this weekend's NCAA National Swimming and Diving Championship.

It’s championship season, and while most eyes are on the basketball this week, Penn has a chance to make the podium nationally in the pool.

There’s no other way of putting it — it’s the end of an era. Penn men's swimming legend Chris Swanson has one meet left to bear the colors Red and Blue.

Like a late-night trip to Wawa, it was a satisfying, though not perfect, finish. It was one last hurrah for the Red and Blue in Maryland this weekend as most of the swim team went to the Eastern College Athletic Conference championships hosted at the U.S.

The phrase, all time best, gets tossed around a lot in sports. However no other phrase better captures Penn’s Mens Swimming and Diving team performance at this year’s Ivy League Championship meet. Penn claimed a school-record six individual Ivy League titles en route to an program record of 1,213.5 points at the championships.

When Eric Schultz was a senior at La Salle College High School and considering Penn as the place he would spend the next four years swimming, he never dreamed of becoming an Ivy League champion.

For members of Penn men’s swimming, this weekend’s Ivy Championships will take on a variety of meanings.

A coach, a lawyer and a swimmer walk into a bar. Sounds like the beginning of bad joke.

History was made by the Penn women’s swimming team at the Ivy Championships this weekend. The Quakers finished fourth overall at the Championships, which came to conclusion Saturday afternoon at the DeNunzio Pool at Princeton. Penn finished with 1,025 points, only behind three historic powers of Ivy League swimming, with Harvard, Yale and host Princeton making up the top three spots by the end of the weekend. The fourth place-finish was overshadowed by several individual performances — including eight school records — and the Red and Blue reaching the 1,000-point mark for the first time in the program’s history. Coach Mike Schnur was elated with his team’s performance, crediting the success on hard work that started way before the season even got fully under way. “Almost everything went right, “ he said.

Six months of practice. 22 weeks of doubles. Thousands of miles swam. And it all comes down to three days in February. Without exaggeration, for the Quakers, this entire season has been about one thing – going fast at Ivy League Championships.

Ask anybody, and they’ll tell you that college is the time to change who you are. But Penn swimming phenom Virginia Burns didn’t foresee the transformation she would undergo.

What is it like to dedicate your entire life to one institution? Perhaps no question is more pertinent to Penn swimming coach, Mike Schnur.

While Senior Day may have only been Saturday , that didn’t stop Penn Swimming and Diving from sending out their graduating class with a full weekend of success.

It’s Harvard’s world, and unfortunately for Penn men’s and women’s swimming and diving, they are still living in it.

Winter has finally arrived here in Philadelphia, but while temperatures fall, things are just starting to heat up for Penn in the Ivy League swimming season.

In a season defined by dominant veteran performances, Penn swimming’s youth movement made a mark of its own over the weekend.