Women’s swimming and diving ends year with defeat at Penn

In its fourth dual meet of the season Friday, the women’s swimming and diving team fell to Penn 135.5-165.5 in Philadelphia, bringing its season record to 1-3, 0-3 Ivy.

Although the Lions started off strong, winning the 200 medley relay with the effort of junior Dorothy Baker, senior Annie Perizzolo, and sophomores Caroline Lukins and Katie Meili, they were soon surpassed by the Quakers, who had first-place finishes in the 1000 free, 200 free, and 100 back.

The first individual win of the day was by senior co-captain Mariele Dunn, who took first in the 100 breast in 1:05.60, followed by her teammate Perizzolo, who finished third. Meili also scored the top spot in the 50 free in 24.28, with the Lions’ Ashley MacLean finishing second and adding even more points to cut Penn’s lead.

In the diving events, the Quakers took the top spots in both the one-meter and three-meter contests, with Kristin Hehir taking second in the 1m and Liana Diamond finishing second in the 3m for the Lions.

The Light Blue fought hard in the second half of the meet to break Penn’s lead, and freshman Alena Kluge did her part with a win in the 200 back in 2:05.73. Dunn and Meili became dual event winners, with Dunn finishing first in the 200 breast and Meili taking the top spot in the 200 IM.

The Penn meet marked the last for the Lions for the 2010 calendar year, but Columbia will be returning home for its next dual meet against Bucknell on Jan. 16, 2011. The meet will be in combination with the men’s team and will begin at 1 p.m at Uris Pool.