Quakers grab sixth at Ivies

Three events, three perfect swims, three more records for Kathleen Holthaus. Not too bad of a weekend.

Entering Ivy League Championships, Holthaus held both the 500 freestyle and 1000 freestyle records. So by merely capitalizing on a taper and lowering her own personal bests, she would have gained a firmer grasp on those two records.

But on her way to scoring 47 points -- the most in Penn women's swimming history -- and helping Penn to a sixth-place finish overall, the sophomore distance swimmer did more than inch under the previous school records -- she shattered them.

"I was almost in shock when I saw that she was swimming so fast," Penn sophomore Jen Block said.

Holthaus shocked the Quakers first by dropping four-seconds from her seed-time in the 500 free to take fifth. She then cut 10 seconds from her time in the 1000 for third. And she followed this up even more emphatically by shedding 37 seconds from her 1650 free seed-time, setting a new school record and grabbing second-place in the event.

After entering the water first every day at practice, and being one of the hardest workers on the team, many expected Holthaus to dominate the Ivy meet.

"Did I expect her around those times? Yeah, I thought she'd be close," Schnur said. "Her 1000 was faster was even than I thought she would go, and her 1650 would've been even faster if her cap hadn't fallen off."

Holthaus took third in the 1000 freestyle in 10:04.77, keeping the virtually the same pace -- 30.5 seconds per 50 yards -- that she held in her previous school-record performance in the shorter 500 freestyle.

Freshman Katie Stores, meanwhile, also added her third Penn record to the Scheerr Pool board.

But her 50 freestyle record in 23.72 seconds was just the beginning of Stores' successes for the weekend.

On Friday, Stores won the 200 freestyle in 1:49.98 -- lowering her own school record -- to become the first Penn swimmer since Cathy Redzin's 100 butterfly in 1983 to win an event at Ivy League championships.

"It was really fun for the team because we haven't had a girl win in almost 20 years," Schnur said. "To have an Ivy champion who's a freshman was really special."

Stores burst out to a full two-second lead after the first 100 of the race, holding off Brown's Dawn Chuck for the victory.

"All I've heard this season was about Dawn Chuck from Brown and how she was so amazing," Stores said. "After watching her at the Brown dual meet, I knew how good she really was. I was pretty nervous going in to the race, because I expected that she would come back in the race."

But Stores' victory was never in doubt.

"There was never a question she was going to win from the minute she got off the block," Schnur said. "She had the lead at the first lap and never relinquished it. She went out real fast with a lot of heart and dared the other girl to catch her at the end."

While Penn posted several impressive individual swims, the Quakers had hoped to improve as a team on last year's sixth- place finish this year. That the Red and Blue were only two points behind fifth-place Columbia this year made the situation that much tougher to bear.

"It was a little disappointing because we beat them swimming-wise," Stores said. "They had 63 points ahead because of diving. It was more frustrating than anything else. We know that we had a better swim team than them."

Penn was the only member of the Ivy League that did not bring any divers to the meet, while Columbia brought three -- Theresa Herrman won the 3 meter diving and placed second in the 1 meter.

"It's disappointing because we always want to beat them," Schnur said. "But we know why we lost and it's not that big of a deal to us."

Even without divers, the Quakers nearly erased a 36- point deficit to Columbia at the end of the first day's events to narrow the lead to two by the end of the final day.

But for Schnur, a fifth- place finish had not been the goal anyway.

"My goal at that meet is not to beat Columbia, it's to win the meet," Schnur said. "Last year Princeton beat us by over 700 points -- this year only 350. We cut a huge amount into the best teams."

With only one graduating member of Penn's Ivy League squad and an incoming class that boasts a senior national finalist, the Quakers will aim for the top again next year.

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