Women's Swimming ready for competitive Ivy rematch

Last year the Penn women's swimming team took the bus home from Harvard's Blodgett Pool glowing about its accomplishments in the annual meet against Harvard and Columbia.

Eight school records in a single meet will do that to a team.

This year, Harvard (3-0, 3-0) and Columbia (3-0, 1-0) will enter Penn's (3-1, 1-1) Sheerr Pool for what should be one of the most tightly contested Ivy League meets of the year.

"Having good competition makes you rise to a higher level," senior captain Jessica Anders said. "Everyone realizes it's going to be a really close meet. We're ready for them."

Despite the eight school records -- many of which were broken again later in the year -- Penn came up shy of Harvard last year, 156-144. Meanwhile, Penn beat Columbia for the first time in 11 years and did so emphatically by a 210-90 margin.

"It was almost like a dual meet with Harvard," said then-freshman Katie Frazee after Penn's win over Columbia. "I couldn't believe we were that much better than Columbia."

This year may be a different story, however. In Columbia's first meet of the season, the Lions handily beat last year's Ivy League No. 3 Yale, 182.5-117.5.

"I know that they've been swimming really well," junior breaststroker Jen Block said. "I know that they have a fast team and have gotten better, but our team has as well. We're not intimidated or anything."

With two transfers in Annie Tudryn and Megan Daney already claiming school records this season and yet another stellar freshman class this year, the Quakers have reloaded and should provide solid depth in most events.

Last year, Block touched out Harvard's Jelena Kristic by .01 seconds in the 100 breaststroke to grab first place in the event with a time of 1:05.24.

Though Kristic is no longer on the team, Harvard junior Erica DeBenadetto's current time of 1:06.51 against Brown should provide for a thrilling finish, should Block perform as she did against Princeton, with a time of 1:06.72.

"I definitely think [that competition makes me go faster]," Block said. "After last year's swim, it was just so amazing. Everyone's so psyched. It should be a really fun, fast meet."

Aside from Columbia freshman Jessica Braun, who has already swum 23.78 in the 50 free, the Quakers have the top swimmers in every event against the Lions.

Harvard's swimmers, however, match up almost identically to Penn's current times, and like the Quakers, have consistent depth.

In addition to having four of the top breaststrokers in the Ivy League, Penn will count on its depth in freestyle events, led by Penn record-holder Katie Stores and freshman Laura Hotaling, a finalist in last year's Senior National Championships.

"Basically, we're going to beat them up in all the freestlye events," Anders, a fellow freestyle swimmer said.

Last year, Harvard captured the meet in the final events at its own pool. The team took eight school records -- so it had nothing to complain about -- but there was still a sense of unfinished business.

This year, with the meet at Sheerr Pool, Penn isn't ready to let its rivals steal the meet in the final events on its home terrain.

"We don't have to travel seven hours -- we know this pool," Anders said.

"It's our pool and we're ready to defend our home turf."

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