Quakers bond on Florida training trip

Normally the Penn swim team expects warm weather during its annual training trip to Florida, but at last weekend's meet, the sunshine state felt like Philadelphia.

"It was 50 degrees and cold and windy," Penn coach Mike Schnur said of the day the outdoor meet was held.

"We had great weather the whole trip: 80 to 85 degrees and sunny every day until the day we had the meet. It was actually kind of funny seeing our larger men on the blocks shivering and freezing."

The primary purpose of the trip was to be a training exercise, but, as per NCAA regulations, a competitive meet was held on the last day so that the teams could be allowed to travel.

On the men's side, the Red and Blue pulled out wins over Transylvania, 182-23, and the College of Charleston, 173.5-29.5, while falling to host school Florida Atlantic, 133-71. Their record improved to 5-4, 0-3 Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL).

For the past seven years, the swimming team has traveled to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla., for training in a warmer climate. This year's trip lasted 11 days.

"It's an unbelievable facility," Schnur said. "It has an outdoor, eight-lane, 50-meter pool; a six-lane, 25-meter pool and a weight room ... We had none of the breathing issues, chlorine issues or pool facility issues that we have here" at Penn.

Some of the swimmers on the team have asthma, the effects of which are mitigated in outdoor settings. Also, Sheerr Pool has experienced several maintenance issues as of late.

According to Schnur, the training trip was extremely effective for the men.

"The men were tremendous," Schnur said. "We are a very different team than we were a month ago. We came together as a group, we bonded well ... and I think we're going to be a 100-percent better team this semester. We're finally fit."

Senior captain Matt Blaszko believes the training trip also built team unity and a stronger work ethic.

"We got close as a team," Blaszko said. "We definitely came out more unified. We had a lot of fun, and I think it's the first time this year that we trained as hard as we could -- whether in the pool, in the weight room or running."

On the women's side, the Quakers earned a 195-10 victory over Transylvania, triumphed 148-57 over the College of Charleston and beat Illinois State, 115-90. They did, however, lose to Florida Atlantic, 141-63. Their record improved to 7-4, 1-4 Ivy.

The women's team has experienced some setbacks in the past month.

"We had some health issues including earaches and colds down there," Schnur said.

"We also missed a ton of practices because of finals. Hopefully, we can overcome them, put them beside us and get back to work.

"We had some good workouts during the trip. I would like to start beating teams we're capable of beating this semester."

Over the break, the divers went to Georgia Tech, where they trained with Florida State's divers.

On Saturday, the Quakers travel to Providence, R.I., to face Brown, a school against which both the men's and women's teams are evenly matched.

"Brown should be two pretty competitive meets," Schnur said. "The men's meet has come down to the last relay the last two years in a row, and we've lost that relay both times. And we turned that around and actually beat them at the end at championships last year. On the women's side, anything can happen."

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