Overmatched M. Swimming tries to pull away a silver lining

The men's swimming team had its first home meet on Friday. As expected, Princeton (214.5-85.5) and Cornell (177-123) defeated the Quakers.

In a sport where parity is far from the norm, Penn coach Mike Schnur had to be happy with what he got.

"Last year we were no where close to the leader at any point of the meet," he said.

The ultimate highlight for Penn came the 200 free relay, the final race of the meet. All three teams - Princeton, Penn and Cornell - broke the previous pool record.

The Red and Blue's team of senior Chris Weitekamp, sophomore Kyle Loughran, and senior captains Devon Carr and Gallagher finished second with a time of 1:24.54.

Penn finished second in the 400 medley to open the meet.

It was the first time Schnur could recall his team finishing better than last in any medley relay.

The lineup of freshman Joe Woodward, junior Chaz Maul, sophomore Brad Farris and Carr completed the race in 1:34.97.

The meet revealed Penn's lack of depth in events. Cornell was a co-championship team last year and Princeton won the tournament for the last two years.

"It's hard to say you are happy when you don't win, but we swam a good meet," Schnur said. "We even had some wins over Cornell; last year they dominated every event."

In other races, the finishes were separated by the slightest margins. Loughran lost the 50 free by five hundreths of a second and Maul lost to Will Schaffer of Princeton by seven hundredths of a second in the 100 breast. In the 200-yard free, senior captain Pat Gallagher and sophomore John Benigno finished with times of 1:41.64 and 1:45.22, good enough for second and third, respectively.

"We are light years ahead of where we were at this time last year," Schnur said.

Light years ahead. Light years to go.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.