Faster than a speeding bullet

Watching the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney three summers ago, it was clear what a world-class swimmer is supposed to look like. Tall, muscular and sleek, their wiry figures enable them to glide through the water with a grace many think unattainable with a different body type. They are wrong. When you talk to Penn swimming coach Mike Schnur about his star freshman Pat Maloney, visions of grandeur abound. "Pat is an extremely gifted swimmer," Schnur said. "He has the kind of innate ability that some kids are just born with." Schnur's sentiments combine with Maloney's already impressive results to paint a picture of an almost super-human athlete. The picture stands a slender 6-foot-4 with knuckles that drag along the pool deck, one envisions Maloney calmly stepping into a phone booth to change before plunging into the pool without sound or splash. If you have never seen Pat Maloney, you might be surprised when you finally do. At 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, the class of 2006's top swimming recruit is anything but what you'd expect. "He is a little short," Schnur admits. "Pat has to work really hard to compete with guys that have a longer build." Watching Pat from the stands of Penn's Sheerr pool, it is not just his ability that sets him apart. In a sport where athletes routinely shave their bodies in order to cut fractions of a second off their times, Maloney sports a full beard. But while Pat may not seem a typical poster boy for Schnur's program, his abilities may propel him to the cover of more than a few media guides. Growing up in New Brunswick, N.J., Maloney joined a club swimming program run out of Rutgers University called the Scarlet Aquatic Center. By the time Pat entered Saint Joseph's High School, swimming had emerged as his primary sport. Enabling him to swim with and against the best young swimmers in the area, Maloney explains that his affiliation with the program made him the swimmer that he is today. "My coach Ryan Brown taught me so much," Maloney said. "We also got to swim against some of the college guys in the summer." Balancing a complete high school season with the demands of an almost year-round club schedule, Maloney emerged as one of the the nation's most talented middle-distance swimmers. "Pat was a top recruit in our league and with many other top programs in the country," Schnur said. Part of Maloney's allure was the niche that he has found within his sport. Capitalizing on his strong endurance, he specializes in the longest event of arguably swimming's hardest stroke -- butterfly.

"I'm not fast enough to win the shorter events, so I swim the 200 fly because I have pretty good endurance," Maloney said. What an understatement. A three time Northeast Sectional Champion in high school, Maloney would be hard pressed to remember a 200 fly race in which he did not finish in the top three, this including the first half of his freshman season for the Quakers. "What makes Pat so successful is his speed over distance," Schnur said. "If you watch his races, he always gets faster as he goes." Heavily recruited by the likes of Princeton and Notre Dame, Maloney's early decision to join the Quakers is interesting. "I came here because this is an up-and-coming program and a great school," Maloney said. While his early admission to Penn last December was exciting, Pat explains that the true highlight of his year came later that spring. "Last year my 800 free relay team qualified for nationals in Minnesota," Maloney said. The freshman joined three other Division I prospects to form a relay that earned the chance to compete against the best swimmers in the nation. Jon Vanassen of North Carolina, Mike Bernardi of Pittsburgh, and Stephen Herniak of Virginia combined with Maloney to finish sixth. "Going to nationals after all the college recruiting stuff was over was an unforgettable experience," Maloney said. "Competing against Olympic-caliber athletes isn't something that you get to do every day." So what can we expect in the years to come from Pat Maloney? Ivy records, a return to nationals, Olympics? According to Pat Maloney, nothing. "I don't really have to many huge goals for my self," Maloney said. "I just am going to work hard and take it one race at a time." The first to tell you what he isn't good at, you won't get any prophesizing from Maloney. You won't hear about how many records he is going to set or how many people he is better than. However, what you are sure to get from New Brunswick's scruffy and soft-spoken product is something that perhaps says more than any words could -- hard work.

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