Emotion on deck tells story of the meet

Standing from the edge of Sheerr Pool midway through the Penn men's swim meet against Rider, freshman Michael Andersen could tell which team had the upper hand. "On one side the swimmers are up and slapping hands and laughing," Anderson said. "On the other side, they are sitting like stones." The behavioral differences between the swimming teams were the result of the Quakers (6-4, 2-4 Ivy) dominant 146-90 victory over Rider last night. At no point during the meet did the Broncs (6-4) come close to defeating Penn. The Quakers took first in nine events despite the absence of several top swimmers from the day's roster. "This was our toughest meet of the year, and we came in and got destroyed," Rider freshman Joe Giberti said. "We cannot match up well against a team like Penn." The Quakers got off to an auspicious beginning when the veteran team of Kevin Pope, Chris Miller, Spencer Driscoll and Eric Hirschhorn took first in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:32.15. The team defeated a Rider squad that consisted of its top swimmers -- Sam Engle and Robert DeSandre -- by more than a second. "Our guys took off from the first race and never let down," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "It's really important to seize the early momentum by winning the first few races, and our team has done that really well the last few meets." The Quakers went on to win three straight events, including a 1-2-3 finish in both the 50 and 200 freestyle. Freshman Matt Blaszko continued his dominance of distance races with a first-place finish in the 1650 freestyle in 16:23.98. The biggest showdown of the night was in the 400 individual medley, as Rider sophomore sensation Engle squared off against Penn's Pat Maloney. Engle ended up defeating the Quakers' star freshman by a second. "He was breathing down my back the whole time and really came on strong down the final stretch," Engle said. "He's a really great swimmer." Maloney went on to place first in the 200 fly for the fourth time this season, with Penn's Brendan Lang and Brian Funk finishing second and third respectively. Engle also placed first in the 200 backstroke. "We were able to allow Engle to win his two races, but Rider wasn't equipped to challenge us anywhere else at the meet," Schnur said. Also contributing for the Red and Blue were Andersen, who finished first in the 500 freestyle, and junior Matt Hand, who placed first in the 100 freestyle. Junior Shaun Lehrer also contributed with a first- place finish in the 200 freestyle and second in the 100. Penn freshman Tyler Markman swept both the one meter and three meter diving events for the second time this season. "I had some really good dives today on both boards," Markman said. Once again, the Quakers were able to rely on their young depth to carry them through the meet. Of the eight individual events won by the Quakers, five were won by freshmen. "It's always nice for freshmen to win in front of your home crowd when you have everyone cheering for you," freshman Arthur Woodbury said. The Quakers expect to receive more strong finishes from their freshman class when they travel to La Salle on Saturday. The Explorers are a much weaker program, which will allow Schnur to use swimmers who normally don't get much racing time.

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