Penn men’s swimming and diving gearing up for Ivy Championships

While the Penn community prepares for its last round of midterms before spring break, Penn men’s swimming and diving are gearing up to head up to Cambridge, M.A. for the Ivy League Championships. 

Like the women’s team, the men’s team is coming into the meet with something to prove: that they are a dominant force in the Ivy League. The Quakers closed the regular season with a 5-2 conference record, good for third in the league. They are coming off a dual meet winning streak against Dartmouth, Yale, and Harvard. The win in the latter being the team's first against the Crimson since 1971.

As expected, all eyes are on junior breaststroker and recent U.S Open champion Matt Fallon. The 2023 Worlds bronze medalist returns to the Ivys healthy and injury-free. Last year, Fallon suffered an in-practice back injury before Ivys that led to a less-than-ideal performance and an absence from the NCAA Championships. 

In his freshman year, Fallon stunned with an Ivy title in conference-record-breaking fashion in the 200-yard breaststroke, an Ivy silver medal in the 100-yard breaststroke, and an NCAA Championships bronze medal in the 200 breast. This year, the Warren, N.J. native is seeded fourth and third in the 200 and 100 breast respectively, and he’ll be looking to emulate this freshman performances as national and international level competition await him later this championship season. 

“[Matt] has been carrying us all year, so it will be exciting to see him race. [...] We're going to cut back a little bit for this meet and take it seriously. Matt hopefully won't be too tired from our training. His focus all year is Olympic Trials, but we love to see Matt have a good meet, especially since he’s a lot healthier this year,” coach Schnur said. 

The 200 breaststroke looks to be the strongest event for the team, thanks to Fallon and the deep breaststroke group behind him. Captain and senior breaststroker Jason Schreiber and fellow senior breaststroker Matt Leblanc will hopefully use their past Ivy experiences to support Fallon in the A-final of the 200 breast — they are seeded fifth and tenth, respectively. 

Schreiber, specifically, is one of the best breaststrokers in league history and has always been close behind Fallon at the Ivys, finishing fourth last year and sixth the year before in the 200 breast. Freshman individual medley specialist Peter Whittington will also be one to watch for in this event as he is seeded eighth. At the mid-season meet, the Big Al Invitational, back in December, Schreiber and Whittington placed third and ninth, respectively, with NCAA B cut times. 

The men are also looking competitive in the distance events. Sophomore backstroker James Curreri is seeded sixth in the 1000-yard freestyle and looking for his first Ivys A-final. Senior individual medley specialist Kevin Keil is seeded seventh in the 1650-yard freestyle and looking to continue the momentum built at Big Al where he finished fifth in this event with NCAA B cut. Young talent is also looking to shine in this event, as well, with freshman individual medley specialist Robert Melsom close behind Keil as the ninth seed. 

Some other top returning talent include junior backstroker/individual medley specialist Daniel Gallagher and senior butterfly/breaststroke/individual medley specialist Ben Feldman. Similar to Fallon, Gallagher is looking to replicate his freshman year Ivys performance, where he placed second in the 200-yard backstroke. Last year, Gallagher finished 14th, but he has been on a hot streak recently with 200 backstroke wins at the Big Al invite and meets against Harvard and Dartmouth. Feldman is swimming both sprint freestyle events that are historically competitive, but the two-time Ivy A-finalist has the experience to be a force in his events and possibly break into the elusive top three. 

“Our men's team is not like our women's. Our men are very spread out and deep in a lot of different events. Our female distance group does carry the women’s team, but with the men, there’s a lot of guys across a lot of events,” Schnur said. 

On the diving side, senior diver Jack Williams headlines for the Quakers as he is seeded fifth in the 1-meter dive. He is looking to conclude his Quaker career on a high note with an NCAA berth after a close run last year.  

As a team, after last year’s disappointing sixth-place team finish and a meet with no champion in any event, the Red and Blue’s theme for this weekend is certainly redemption. They are looking to redeem themselves and to replicate their third place at the 2022 Ivys. 

Fallon will certainly lead the way for the Quakers in a meet where lots of young talent and veterans will come together to climb the scoreboard this weekend.