With the events of last Wednesday's tragic death of a University of Massachusetts swimmer behind them, the Dartmouth men's swim team traveled to Pennsylvania this past weekend eyeing its third win of the season. But the Big Green fell just short against a deep Quaker team, losing 139-104.
"After the shocking experience at our [home] meet against UMass, it was great to see how well we re-focused as a team," co-Captain David Kramer '96 said. "If anything, Wednesday's tragedy brought us even closer together and forced us to take advantage of every opportunity on Saturday."
Co-Captain Grier Laughlin '96 said, "In the end, the meet came down to depth. We had the victories, but they had the seconds, thirds, and fourths to win."
The 400 medley relay of Laughlin, Ben Lannon '96, Geoff Walford '99 and Doug Doucet '98 opened the meet with a second place finish, with Penn taking first and third in the race, to grab the early overall lead.
Dartmouth's Michael Hooper '99 put in a dominating performance in the 1650 freestyle, quickly pulling away from the pack and cruising to victory in 16:44.37. Hooper capped that win with a victory in the 400 individual medley as well, finishing with a 4:14.05 time.
The Big Green only managed third place in the 200 freestyle, but followed with a victory in the 50 freestyle, behind Jon Kenyon '97 with a time of 22.13.
Led by Toby Hays '99, the Dartmouth divers took to the boards, scoring 15 of the available 19 points on the one meter board. Hays finished first with 178.40 points followed by Mark Devlin '98 in second place with 141.15 points. Jeremy Turk '97 finished fourth with 109.00 points.
That barrage from the men's divers brought Dartmouth to within four points of Penn's lead.
Dartmouth's strong freshman Hooper then took to the water again, eyeing his third victory of the meet, this time in the 200 fly. But Hooper came up just short, earning a close second place finish with a 1:56.01 time.
Unfortunately, Dartmouth's next finisher came in fifth, and the Big Green fell even further behind in the 100 freestyle, finishing third.
The swimmers and divers posted victories in the 200 backstroke and from the three meter diving board. Laughlin turned in 1:56.98 to win the 200 backstroke, and Hays won the three meter board with 181.45 points. No other diver was within 65 points of Hay's effort.
But by that time, the meet had slipped away from Dartmouth, with Penn victories in the 200 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay. "Even though we came up short, we gave a much larger Penn squad a big scare." Kramer said. "I was especially impressed with Mike Hooper. His performances in the mile, the 400 IM, and the 200 Fly were something we can all point to and tout as very indicative of our physical conditioning and preparedness to compete."
Dartmouth, 1-1 in the Ivies and 2-2 overall, next faces Columbia on Saturday at noon in the Karl B. Michael pool.
