Senior Kim Phan had a hand in four event wins against West Chester: the 200-yard freestyle relay, 200 medley relay, the 50 free, and the 100 butterfly.
Credit: Chase SuttonHeading into the Ivy League Championships in a mere three weeks, Penn men’s and women’s swimming needed a dominant performance.
On Friday against West Chester, they showed up for the occasion.
The men took a 175-113 decision, and the women won 169-122, as the Red and Blue concluded the dual-meet portion of their season.
The meet began with a dynamic finish from Penn's men's 200-yard medley relay team composed of freshman Ikenna Eruchalu and juniors Mark Andrew, Colin McHugh and Thomas Dillinger (1:32.71).
Moments later, freshman Will Thomas set a Sheerr Pool record in the 1,000 freestyle, clocking in at 9:09.86. This was just one of the five events that the Penn men swept, taking the top three spots in a testament to the roster’s depth.
Some notable performances came in wins from freshman Luke Snyder (200 freestyle), senior Hunter Brakovec (200 butterfly), freshman Sean Lee (50 freestyle), Eruchalu (100 butterfly), senior CJ Schaffer (100 backstroke), and freshman Nathaniel Cunnan (100 freestyle). Also, freshmen Paul Zou and John McCaghren won the 500 freestyle and 200 backstroke respectively.
Just like the men (6-4, 2-4 Ivy), the Penn women (6-5, 3-4) started off the contest with a 200-medley relay win. Their 200-free relay team of senior Kim Phan, sophomore Wendy Yang, and freshmen Victoria Wong and Quinn Scannell set a Sheerr Pool record, as they finished with a time of 1:35.02.
Phan would go on to win the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly to wrap up an impressive individual performance. In addition, Wong followed up the 200-free relay record with a win in the 200 backstroke and a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke, behind Yang.
Other first-place finishes came courtesy of junior Libby Jardeleza (100 fly), freshman Anderson Myers (200 butterfly), junior Mary Whiting (200 freestyle), sophomore Linda Zhang (100 breaststroke) and sophomore Serena Xue (200 breaststroke).
In the diving events, junior Andrew Bologna won the 1-meter with 296.92 points, and sophomore John-Michael Diveris finished in second. On the women’s side, freshmen Madison Perry and Juliette Pozzuoli claimed the 3-meter and the 1-meter respectively.
The men will look to match or even best their second-place finish last year (their best finish in more than 40 years), when they head to the Ivy League Championships at Princeton’s DeNunzio Pool from Feb. 18-21. On a similar note, the Red and Blue women look to improve on their fourth-place finish last year (tied for their best result in school history), as they head to Harvard on Feb. 14.
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