Penn women's swimming captain and senior Virginia Burns won gold in the 200 yard freestyle, but it wasn't enough to push the Quakers over Princeton.
Credit: Ananya ChandraPenn swimming and diving experienced both success and failure at its first tri-meet of the 2017-2018 season.
On Saturday, the men's team crushed Cornell, 237-63, but narrowly lost to Princeton, 157-153. The women found similar success, topping the Big Red with ease, 228-79, but falling to the Tigers 182-118.
While the men (2-2, 1-2 Ivy) came up short against Princeton (3-2, 2-0), the Quakers saw good swims from several members of the squad. Juniors Mark Andrew and Thomas Dillinger both earned two first-place wins each, while the 200 yard free relay team consisting of Mark Blinstrub, Colin McHugh, Sean Lee, and Dillinger also posted a first-place time to open the meet.
Andrew saw his first of two wins in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:38.47, and then later in the 200 yard Individual Medley, out-touching his teammate, Dillinger, by only a fingertip. Blinstrub followed up those triumphs with a gold in the 100 yard backstroke, clocking a time of 48.99.
Two breakthrough men's freshmen have also proven their potential on the Ivy League stage in these first three weeks. Sean Lee picked up his third win of his collegiate career in the 200 yard fly, while classmate Boris Yang placed first in the 200 yard breastwork for the second straight week.
Dillinger also made an impressive comeback after the 200 yard medley to find the podium in consecutive freestyle events. He placed first in the 50 yard freestyle as well as the 100 yard freestyle, clocking times of 20.48 and 45.12, respectively.
On the women's side, Penn's (2-2, 2-1) 200 yard medley team of Quinn Scannel, Victoria Wong, Kristen Sun, and Kimbery Phan opened the meet and gave the Quakers their first win of the day. In the following distance event, teammates Erin Kiely, Grace Ferry and Ryan Alexander all placed consecutively in the 1000 freestyle, with Kiely taking first place.
Senior captain Virginia Burns then earned her spot atop the podium in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:51.11.
Scannell, who is a freshman, has proven herself to be a powerful force for the Red and Blue. She picked up her second win of the day during the 100 yard backstroke, touching before the runner-up from Princeton by a fraction of a second. Nancy Hu then came through with Penn’s final win of the day in the 200 yard butterfly.
Both teams return to Pottruck's Scherr Pool against La Salle on Tuesday for a mid-week home dual meet.
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