Busy month for Ivy swimming

In the week of Dec. 6, the Penn men's swimming team lost its third meet of the season against Columbia. Protesters staged a sit-in at Dartmouth's administration building in an effort to urge officials to consider options other than cutting the swimming teams, and Yale's swimming team wrapped up its third consecutive victory and hosted the Nutmeg Invitational. One and a half months later, the entire Ivy League has changed. The revamped Quakers (4-3, 1-3 Ivy) will take on a recently reinstated Dartmouth team and Yale in a double-dual meet on Jan. 25 at the Karl Michael Pool in Hanover, N.H. "Our guys are really excited about this meet and the chance to show how much we've improved since the beginning of the year," coach Mike Schnur said. Last weekend, the Quakers claimed three victories in three days over Notre Dame, Navy and Brown. While the Quakers have already improved from the team that posted three straight losses to Cornell, Princeton and Columbia earlier in the season, the swimmers are anxious to ride their momentum from last weekend and focus it on Dartmouth and Yale. "Our wins, especially against Navy and Brown, show that we can be a huge force in our league," co-captain Spencer Driscoll said. While Dartmouth is a much weaker team than Yale, the Quakers realize that both teams pose significant threats to their four-meet winning streak. Dartmouth (2-3, 0-2 Ivy) was the center of national attention when the University announced on Nov. 25 that both its men's and women's swimming programs would be eliminated at the end of this season as part of a campus-wide budget reduction. Despite immediate public outcries, Dartmouth proceeded to carry out its plans to eliminate the teams until a series of discussions between university officials and team supporters produced an agreement. The agreement called for the program to be fully reinstated based on a $2 million fundraising effort by a group of students, parents and alumni. After receiving the good news, the Big Green men proceeded to break 14 pool records in a 188-88 blowout at Division III Middlebury, followed by a first place finish in the University of Rhode Island Invitational. "Dartmouth's program was brought back from the dead," Schnur said. "We are going to have to expect their guys to be giving all they've got for the rest of the season." There is also speculation among Penn swimmers that the Big Green might not attend the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships. "If [Dartmouth] doesn't attend the EISLs, then they will be working extra hard against individual opponents at the tri-meet Saturday," junior Brendan Lang said. But while the Quakers' times are significantly better than Dartmouth's, Penn will also try to end its seven-year losing streak against Yale (6-0, 2-0 Ivy) this weekend. Yale is coming off a 14-1 record last year in which it finished second only to Harvard in the Ivy League. Yale also became the only NCAA program to record its 1000th all-time dual meet victory in a dramatic 177-176 comeback win over Princeton last year. In the last four years, the Elis are 44-7 in dual meets. While the Elis already are the more impressive team on paper, they could receive extra motivation this weekend from the tragic car accident last Friday that left four Yale athletes dead and canceled all varsity sports events on Jan. 17, including two swimming meets. Nevertheless, the Quakers still feel they will have a chance to surprise the Elis this weekend. "Last year when we swam against Yale we felt intimidated," Lang said. "Now that we are already battle-tested from last weekend, we feel we can give them a tough challenge this year." Penn's last victory over Yale came in a double-dual meet at Sheerr Pool in 1995 -- the Quakers defeated the Elis, 132-111, while losing to Cornell, 128-115. But this year could be the year. "Our performance last weekend is a great indication of how well our team can challenge powerhouse teams such as Yale," co-captain Kevin Pope said after his team's victory over Brown on Sunday.

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