Maloney impressive in M. Swimming's first meet

Last year, Pat Maloney caught the attention of the Ivy League swimming community, blasting out of the starting blocks to finish first among Ancient Eight freshmen in the 200 butterfly and 400 individual medley at the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) Championships.

After only one meet, Maloney may have already stepped up to the next level.

Racing against Olympian Juan Valdivieso of Peru in the 200 fly, Maloney raced evenly with the Princeton star for most of the event, eventually taking second in 1:50.38.

"I felt great going into the pool on Saturday -- I was really surprised by the times," said Maloney, who also placed third in the 200 I.M. "I was really excited for my 200 fly against Juan. He's a real fast guy, a real nice guy, too -- a great competitor. It was great to be that close to him."

Yet the Quakers' individual performances were not enough against the defending Ivy League champion Tigers, as Penn fell, 187-56. The Red and Blue also fell to Cornell in the double-dual meet in Ithaca, N.Y., 144-95.

Despite it being the first meet of the season for both teams, the Big Red elected to shave body hair and taper practices for the meet, a move that is normally reserved for the EISL Championships in February or a highly contested rivalry between two schools.

The Quakers, meanwhile are in the midst of tough training, having doubled up on practices through Wednesday of last week.

In addition to Maloney, the Penn sprinters led the way for the Quakers. Senior Andrew Trout and sophomore Kevin Scott took first and second, respectively, among the three squads in the 50 freestyle, handily defeating the nearest Cornell competition.

"Andrew and K-Scott getting first and second in the 50 [against Cornell] was very unexpected," Penn coach Mike Schnur said. "Because usually when a team shaves, their best events are going to be their sprints. For Kev. and Andrew to step up like that is great -- it bodes well for the rest of the year."

Scott, a product of Radnor High School in suburban Philadelphia, has quickly made himself into the second option in the sprint events behind Trout. With the loss of last year's co-captain Kevin Pope, Scott could prove to be integral in the sprint events this season.

Fresh off the weekend road trip to Ithaca, N.Y., the Quakers will dive right back into action today at Sheerr Pool against La Salle in a rare weekday meet.

The meet will feature the 400 I.M. and 1,650 freestyle -- oddities during the regular season -- giving swimmers the chance to get seed times for the championship meets at the end of the season. Schnur will alter the lineup from its normal scheme.

"I really don't know how La Salle's going to stack up," senior co-captain Shaun Lehrer said. "Hopefully everybody will step up and we'll demolish them. But you never know."

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