Quakers set for biggest meet of season

It doesn't get any bigger than this. This weekend the Penn men's swim team heads to Hempstead, N.Y., to compete in an event that it has been thinking about since its preseason began last year -- the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships. The EISL Championships pit all eight of the Ivy League schools plus Army and Navy against each other. The meet determines the final Ivy League standings. "The EISL championships are what we build up to all season," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. Last year, Penn finished eighth at the EISL Championships which a year ago were at Harvard. The Quakers completed the weekend with a total of 449 points less than one third the total that Princeton won the title with -- the Tigers had 1,522 points. Penn finished 51 points behind seventh place Navy. Princeton's win marked the first time since 1995 that anyone but Harvard won the title. Princeton also won the championship in 1995. This year, Penn fans have every reason to believe that things will be different. Impressive wins over Notre Dame and Navy this season have provided glimpses of what this team is capable of when it swims to its potential. However, Schnur stresses the importance of using past successes this season as nothing more than impetus for this weekend. "I am happy with how we have performed at points this season, but this is the event that we have been preparing for," Schnur said. The EISLs began yesterday, and with an extremely successful season behind them and almost two full weeks of rest, the top swimmers that Penn has to offer took the water to compete against the top Division I swimmers in the Northeast. Penn senior captain Spencer Driscoll and freshman Pat Maloney headline what is perhaps the strongest squad that Schnur has ever taken to the end-of-the-year championship. "EISLs are the biggest event of the year," Maloney said. "I'm not too nervous right now, but I want to swim well."

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