Penn men's and women's swimming take first place at the Miami of Ohio Invitational

While everyone on campus is gearing up for final exams, Penn swimming competed over the weekend at the Miami of Ohio Invitational. The Quakers dominated the event early on, sitting in first place after winning six of the first 10 events.

The men's team performed well in the first round of events, winning five finals with strong performances from Billy Fallon, Jacob Furlong, John McCaghren, Jason Schreiber, Eric Dietrich-Peterson, and Jack Loveless, who finished in first through sixth place, respectively. Thursday’s 200-yard freestyle relay saw Nathaniel Cunnan, Matthew Dieffenthaller, Sean Lee, and Noah Pereles finish in first place. 

In the A final of the 500 freestyle, the women's team nearly swept the first six spots with a first place finish from senior Kaitlin Stearns, a second place finish from freshman Lyndsey Reeve, a third place effort from sophomore Grace Giddings, a fifth place finish from freshman Bridget O’Leary, and a seventh place performance from sophomore Rachel Maizes.

In addition to competing at Miami of Ohio, Penn was also well-represented at the US Open in Atlanta. Sophomore Catherine Buroker finished 33rd in the 800 freestyle and 62nd in the 400 freestyle. Freshman Margot Kaczorowski finished 93rd overall in the 50 free. 

On the men’s side, freshman Matt Bonnell finished 38th in the 800 freestyle, followed by senior Matt Haigh in 45th and sophomore CJ Hinckley in 74th. In the 400 freestyle, sophomore William Kamps broke the record for Penn’s best-ever finish at the event, coming in 28th place.

After Penn’s initial sweep of events at the Miami of Ohio Invitational on Thursday, all of Friday’s events were canceled, while Saturday’s events were postponed until 4:15 p.m. The second series of events – preliminaries in the 100 fly, 400 individual medley, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, and 100 backstroke – was set to begin at 10 a.m. on Friday, but problems with the pool pushed the meet managers to cancel the events and start again on Saturday.

Before the cancellation on Friday, seniors Emily Layne and Meredith Newman finished third and fourth, respectively, in the women’s 100 freestyle, followed by freshman Amanda Hsieh in fifth and senior Mollie Westrick in seventh. In the men’s 100 freestyle, Cunnan and Dieffanthaller finished first and second, followed by Pereles in fifth.

On Saturday, senior Serena Xue, senior Emma Holmquist, and sophomore Grace Estabrook finished first, fourth, and seventh in the 200 breaststroke, respectively. Penn continued to be well-represented in the 200 butterfly with junior Joanne Fu finishing second, followed by Anderson Myers, Anna Feng, Anna Newnam, and Hsieh in third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively. In the men’s 200 breaststroke, Boris Yang, Schreiber, Alec Hsing, and Eric Wang finished first through fourth, respectively.

The Quakers were able to make a statement with these impressive performances at the Miami of Ohio Invitational and US Open. About halfway through the season, the swimmers are showing off the hard work they’ve been putting in and are looking toward a promising second half of the year.