Men's Swimming falls at hostile Uris Pool

NEW YORK -- When the Penn men's swimming team entered the underground "bomb shelter" also known as Uris Pool last Friday -- as Penn coach Mike Schnur referred to Columbia's home pool -- it knew it was in for a competitive meet against its arch rival, the Lions.

Opposing the Quakers was a revamped Columbia squad and a crowd of belligerent New York fans.

Despite a solid showing, the Quakers (0-3, 0-3 Ivy) fell to Columbia (2-1, 1-1 Ivy), 145-96, ending the Red and Blue's three-year winning streak against the Lions.

"We swam very well in all of the races," Schnur said. "Unfortunately, we just didn't come out on top."

The Quakers took first place in two events at the meet. After a close second place finish two weeks ago at the Cornell and Princeton meet, junior Andrew Trout finished first in the 50 free with a time of 21.25.

Freshman Neville Mitchell also recorded his first win of the season in the 200 backstroke, with a time of 1:53.32.

"It's always exciting to beat our archrival in any particular race," Mitchell said. "But we got outswam in most of them."

The Lions jumped out to an early lead after the foursome of Reid Evans, Parker Barnum, Ben Collins and Scott Ingram won the 400 medley relay in 3:27.99.

Coming in less than a second behind the Lions team were Quakers Kevin Pope, Chris Miller, Nate Pinney and Kevin Scott.

"The 400 medley was a really close race," Schnur said. [Columbia] was able to build upon its momentum from that race for the rest of the meet."

The Lions capitalized on their auspicious start, going on to win 11 out of the 13 events. All of the races, however, were hotly contested by the Quakers, who finished less than a second behind the winning Columbia time on five separate occasions.

"We were beaten in a number of close races that could have gone either way," Mitchell said. "It's a real disappointment."

The Lions were led by freshman Rusty Corley and sophomore Collins. Corley, a two-time Alabama state champion, finished first in three out of six freestyle events. Collins, a YMCA national finalist in the 200 back, lost his signature event but won the 200 fly and 200 individual medley.

Among the clustered, dank conditions of Uris Pool and the continued screaming of Columbia's fans, the Quakers were forced to race against a Lions team with a clear home field advantage.

"The conditions in New York are always a factor," senior co-captain Spencer Driscoll said.

The Columbia men's squad continued its competition over the weekend in Princeton, N.J., where it finished sixth out of eight teams in the Princeton Invitational.

The Quakers will enter their winter break still winless on the season. While the team has not been winless against Cornell and Columbia in the past three years, there is no sense of hopelessness or anxiety in the locker room.

"I told the kids that we are the best 0-3 team in the country," Schnur said.

One reason for this outlook is the amazing individual times that the Quakers recorded in the past two meets. While these performances were not enough to earn Penn the victory in the meets, they look favorably upon the championships at the end of the year.

"Although we're not doing as well as we had in our dual meets, our individual times will be a force to be reckoned with at [the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships]," Driscoll said.

With more than half the team composed of rookies, both coaches and veterans continue to place emphasis on the freshman class.

So far, the freshmen have lived up to their high expectations.

While Mitchell and fellow freshman Pat Maloney have already recorded their first wins of the season, several others have finished right behind some of the best swimmers that the Ivy League has to offer.

"As the season progresses, the freshmen continue to display their tremendous talent and ability to perform in dual meet competition," Trout said.

The Quakers will take a two week break from meets for finals and will return early from vacation on Dec. 27. The team will then travel to Florida for a week-and-a-half long winter training program.

"The winter program is definitely an advantage, a time to really buckle down and train harder," Mitchell said.

The Quakers will resume competition on Jan. 11 against Army and try to end their current losing trend.

"Despite our record, there is still an air of extreme optimism and determination to succeed in the latter half of the season," Trout said.

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