Penn men's and women's swimming split dual meet with Princeton and Cornell

Penn swimming traveled to Princeton, N.J. this weekend to compete in an Ivy League tri-meet against Princeton and Cornell. Both the men's and women's teams ended the meet with victories over the Big Red, but both also lost to the host Tigers.

The men’s team (3-2, 2-2 Ivy) handily beat the Big Red (2-3, 1-3) while being edged out by a mere 12 points against the Tigers (3-0, 2-0). Led by junior captain Sean Lee, the Red and Blue garnered seven first-place finishes. 

Lee prevailed in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events, edging Cornell’s John Mahoney by two-tenths of a second in the 50 and Princeton’s Charles Leibson by a similar margin in the 100. Lee also came away victorious in the 100 butterfly, beating Princeton’s Nicholas Lim by 13 one-hundredths of a second.

Freshman Matt Bonnell won two events in commanding style, winning by a two-second margin in the 500 freestyle and a near one-second margin in the 1000 freestyle. Another example of Penn’s young talent, freshman Jason Schreiber won the 200 breaststroke, beating fellow Quaker Boris Yang by three-tenths of a second.

Rounding out these wins was senior John-Michael Diveris, who won the three-meter dive event by a three-point margin with a final tally of 345.20.

In addition to their first-place finishes, the Red and Blue notched several other top spots. Again led by Lee, the Quakers took a third-place finish in the 200 medley, finishing one second behind the first-place Tigers. Sophomore William Kamps also found the podium, finishing third in the 200 freestyle and leading a second-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay.  

Penn also found success in the backstroke events. Freshman Mark McCrary and junior John McCaghren placed second and third in the 100 backstroke, respectively. McCrary again placed high in the 200 backstroke, coming second to the Big Red’s Paige Dacosta. In the last race of the day, the 400 freestyle relay, the Red and Blue nearly found victory, losing by a two-second margin to the hosts.   

On the women’s side, the Quakers took their first victory of the season with a commanding win over Cornell (1-4, 0-4). However, they were handily defeated by Princeton (3-1, 2-0). Although they did not end with any first-place finishes, some strong showings led them to numerous podium finishes.

Leading the way in the first event was a group led by sophomore Hannah Kannan, whose impressive 25-second backstroke leg helped the Quakers achieve a third-place finish in the 200 medley. Continuing with this success was sophomore Grace Giddings, whose 10:07 time led her to a third-place finish in the 1000 freestyle.

Continuing her success in the backstroke, Kannan nearly won two other events, coming in second in the 100 and 200 backstroke. Kannan was a mere seven-tenths of a second behind Princeton’s Gianna Garcia in the 100 and 2.5 seconds behind Princeton’s Emily Trieu in the 200.

Although the Quakers hit a dry spell in the next few events, senior Serena Xue led with a solid time in the 200 breaststroke, coming in second. Although she did not finish victorious, her time bested the third-place swimmer by three seconds.

Ending the day, the Red and Blue found the podium one more time, finishing third in the 400 freestyle.

This meet was an indicator of not only the current strength of Penn swimming but also the promise of the younger talent on the team. The multitude of wins and podium finishes by underclassmen is an indication of future Quaker success not only this year, but in years to come.

Penn's next meet is the Miami of Ohio Invitational in Oxford, Ohio from Dec. 5-7.