Women's Swimming cruises by competition

The Penn women's swimming team had high hopes going into this weekend's eagerly anticipated matchup against Harvard and Columbia.

With the core of last year's team returning and the additions of two transfers and a great freshman class, they had reason to feel that way.

But this weekend's performance may have even surpassed their already lofty expectations.

In its first home meet of the season, Penn(5-1, 3-1) decisively thrashed the Crimson, 179-121, avenging last year's narrow 156-144 loss. The Quakers also repeated last season's trouncing of Columbia, this time by a score of 192-108.

"We were pretty confident going into the meet, expecting to match up pretty well with Columbia, but we were not expecting to completely blow Harvard out," junior Kathleen Holthaus said.

In addition to taking first or second in all but five of the day's events, the Red and Blue rewrote the record books in four events.

"This weekend, I think we proved ourselves to all the doubting teams and proved to ourselves why we're doing all this work," senior co-captain Jessica Anders said.

With a record-breaking win in the meet's first race, the 200 medley relay, the Quakers set the tone for what would be a triumphant day at Sheerr Pool.

"Having a meet start out so well created momentum for the team," sophomore Katie Stores said. "The atmosphere was just so amazing, and everyone was pumped up after that."

The relay team of Megan Daney, Anne Tudryn, Robyn Harm and Laura Hotaling erased the competition and the previous Penn record with a time of 1:46.11.

Junior transfers Daney and Tudryn also made their marks in the Penn record books with stellar performances in the back and breaststroke events, respectively.

Daney placed first in the 100 back (57.83) and the 200 back (2:03.72), and Tudryn turned in first-place times in the 100 breast (1:05.44) and 200 breast (2:18.60).

"After half the meet at the diving break, everyone was getting really excited," Holthaus said. "All the girls went best times or close to it."

In the distance events, Holthaus broke her own Penn record from last season in the 1000 freestyle with a time of 10:04.53, making this the third consecutive record-breaking meet for the Quakers.

"[Breaking the record] was really unexpected this early in the season," Holthaus said. "I didn't know how fast I was going until I came out on top."

She also took first in the 500 free, coming in at 4:59.53.

The Red and Blue continued to dominate in the freestyle events, as Stores placed first in the 200 free (1:51.34) and the 100 free (51.38) and Hotaling won the 50 free (23.85).

"I didn't really know what to expect because I had been sick recently and didn't swim much over Thanksgiving," Stores said. "But everyone was swimming so well that I wanted to make them proud."

The team of Anders, Hotaling, Daney and Stores concluded the successful day with a first-place finish in the 400 free relay, coming in at 3:31.74.

Also turning in a first-place performance for the Red and Blue was sophomore Katie Coxe in the 200 butterfly (2:27.94).

With their Ivy record of 3-1, the Quakers join the Crimson in second place -- both remain behind undefeated Princeton in the standings.

"With such a huge win, I think we're well on our way to reaching our goal of winning 10 meets," Penn coach Mike Schnur said.

After the winter break training trip to Florida, the Red and Blue will travel to Annapolis, Md. on Jan. 11 to take on Army.

"You can't imagine the excitement on this team," Stores said. "It's shaping up to be a great season."

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