Senior Rochelle Dong was the Quakers' best weapon last time out and will hope to build off that three win performance as Ivy Championships near.
Credit: Julio Sosa , Julio SosaThe swimming and diving regular season comes to a close this Friday when the Penn men’s and women’s teams travel to West Chester for a dual meet against the Golden Rams.
For both Penn and West Chester, the meet will serve as the final tuneup before their respective league championship meets – Penn in the Ivy League of course and West Chester in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.
For the men (7-3, 4-3 Ivy), Friday’s meet marks the first competition since January 14, when Penn hosted Ivy rivals Brown and Harvard, earning mixed results. The Red and Blue dominated Brown, winning 215.5-82.5. Unfortunately, against Harvard, the results were nearly reversed, as Penn was dealt a swift 206-88 defeat.
The women fared in much the same way. Against Brown, the Quakers were successful, winning 181-119. As it was with the men, Harvard came out on top, albeit by a significantly narrower margin, 165-135. Sporting an identical record to the men, the women will also be competing for the first time since the Ivy tri-meet.
For the Golden Rams, the gap between meets will be longer, as the neither the men (6-3), nor women (6-2) have swum since January 7.
Unfortunately for the Quakers, their opponents come into the meet hot with both the men and women riding four-meet win streaks. Penn will be hoping that the Golden Rams will have cooled off after the long break, but a team coming off a long rest could give them just as much worry.
In any case, Penn will be reliant, as always, on seniors Rochelle Dong for the women and Kevin Su for the men, both of whom swam exceptionally against their Ivy rivals. Su garnered three top-three finishes on the day in the freestyle competitions, while Dong asserted her dominance as well, winning three events.
It goes without saying that Penn will need all of that firepower and more this Friday and beyond as the Quakers race to the playoffs.
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