Dartmouth, Yale @ Penn
- Saturday, January 8th, 2022
- Sheerr Pool, Philadelphia, PA
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
Team Scores
*not yet available
Women
Men
Women’s Recap
Penn’s Lia Thomas had an up-and-down day for the Quakers, still picking up a pair of victories.
Thomas, a transgender swimmer who competed her first two seasons at Penn on the men’s team, has found herself at the center of the ongoing debate as to the rules surrounding transgender athletes in sports. Per the NCAA policy on transgender athletes, a trans woman is allowed to compete on a women’s team if they’ve completed a minimum of one year of testosterone suppression treatment. Thomas has been receiving such treatment for the past 2.5 years. In recent weeks, people in various positions around the swimming community have voiced both support and criticism for Thomas’ ability to compete on the women’s team. Yesterday, the Ivy League released a statement in “unwavering support” of Thomas competing on the women’s team.
Thomas kicked off her racing on Saturday with a 1:48.73 to win the 200 free. The swim was Thomas’ 2nd-slowest 200 of the season so far, only faster than the 1:51.96 she swam at a dual meet with Brown in November. Notably, that 1:51 200 free came as part of the grueling 1000 free/200 free double, after swimming a 9:48 in the 1000. Although Thomas’ time Saturday could be classified as an “off” swim, the way she split the race seems to indicate otherwise. She swam 26.08 and 28.12 on the first 2 50s. Thomas then sped up on the back half, splitting 27.14 and 27.39, for a 54.53 on the 2nd 100 – almost an even-split swim.
She then went on to finish 6th in the 100 free, swimming a 52.84, which clocks in as her slowest 100 of the season by over a second. Thomas finished out the day with a 4:57.20 to win the 500 free. That swim stands as her slowest of the season by 3 seconds, and it’s 23 seconds slower than her season best of 4:34.06.
Thomas didn’t swim the 1000 free at this meet, but Penn flexed their distance muscles in the event. Junior Catherine Buroker took the race in 10:00.33, marking her first swim of the 2021-22 season. Buroker didn’t compete in the fall semester, but it appears she hasn’t skipped a beat, swimming the fastest non-championship meet 1000 of her career on Saturday. Buroker has qualified for the NCAA Championships in her two full seasons with the Quakers, and was the Ivy League champion in the 1000 and 1650 free in her first year, before finishing runner-up in both events as a sophomore. Prior to Lia Thomas‘ swims this fall, Buroker was the Penn Record holder in the 1650 free (16:09.76).
It was a 1-2-3 finish for Penn in the 1000 Saturday, as Grace Giddings took 2nd in 10:08.97, and Anna Sofia Kalandadze touched 3rd with a 10:09.72. For Giddings, the performance was her fastest of the season so far. This Penn distance squad is shaping up to be quite formidable. Thomas leads the Ivy League this season with her season best of 9:48.93, and Buroker’s time today lands her 2nd in the conference. Kalandadze is currently #6 in the conference with her season best of 10:05.96, and Giddings is now 9th with her performance today, giving Penn 4 of the top 10 1000 freestylers in the conference.
Buroker would go on to take 2nd in the 500 free with a 4:58.67, while Giddings would come in 3rd (5:03.16), marking another big distance race for Penn.
Yale went on a run after the 200 free, winning the next 7 swimming events. Lindsey Wagner kicked things off, swimming a 55.37 to win the 100 back by over a second. Next up was Ava Franks, who won the 100 breast decisively with a 1:03.37, then went on to claim victory in the 200 breast later in the meet (2:17.97).
Yale’s Alexandra Massey took the 200 fly in 1:59.63, getting out to the early lead and holding on to win over Dartmouth’s Mia Leko (2:00.23). Massey would then go on to win the 200 back, swimming a 2:01.05.
Izzi Henig, another transgender swimmer, handled the sprint events, winning the 50 free in 22.76, then coming out of the break with a 49.57 to seal the deal in the 100 free. Henig was in a league of his own today, winning the 50 free by 0.96 seconds, and the 100 by 1.60 seconds, both huge margins for those events. Over the summer, Henig was featured in a New York Times piece for Pride Month, in which he discussed his coming out as a trans man to his family and loved ones. In the piece, he discusses the decision to forgo hormone treatment for the time being, and simply transition socially, in order to continue competing on the women’s team for the remainder of his swimming career at Yale.
Massey came back into the fold for the 100 fly, where she won the race in 55.51, narrowly beating out Penn’s Vanessa Chong (55.73) to pick up her 3rd win of the day. Yale closed out the meet with victories in the 200 IM and 400 free relay. Raime Jones won the 200 IM in 2:03.85, using a 57.95 on the first 100 to get out to an early lead.
Izzi Henig (50.45), Ophelia Pilkinton (51.30), Marlise Moesch (51.23), and Lindsey Wagner (51.78) teamed up to win the 400 free relay in 3:24.76, touching first by 7 seconds.
Diving Winners
- 1 meter: Alyssa Palacios (Dartmouth) – 269.15
- 3 meter: Isabella Lichen (Dartmouth) – 259.65
Men’s Recap
Penn star first year Matthew Fallon, to no one’s surprise, won the 200 breast Saturday. He was the only swimmer in the field to crack 2:00, swimming a 1:59.88.
Fallon currently leads the 200 breast in NCAA this season with the 1:49.71 he swam at the Zippy Invite in December, and was a finalist at the U.S. Olympic Trials over the summer.
He also took 2nd in the 200 fly on Saturday with a 1:50.07.
In Fallon’s absence from the 100 breaststroke, Penn was still able to handle their business. The Quakers went 1-2 with Jason Schreiber swimming a 56.53, and Neil Simpson right behind in 56.78 for 2nd.
Yale’s Noah Millard posted a decisive victory in the 200 free, swimming a 1:38.14. Coming in 2nd was Yale teammate Nathaniel Hickman-Chow, who clocked a 1:40.80. Millard would go on to win the 500 free in 4:31.85, touching first by almost 5 seconds.
Joseph Page (Yale) won both his events on the day as well. He kicked things off with a win in the 100 back, swimming a 50.04. In the 100 free, Page swam a 44.91, winning by over 7-tenths of a second. Another Yale swimmer, Sungmin Kang, won the 200 fly in 1:49.05, before taking the 200 IM in 1:50.29.
Yale finished on a high note, going 1-2 in the 400 free relay. The ‘A’ team of Noah Millard (45.48), Joseph Page (45.14), Philippe Marcoux (44.47), and Marcus Hodgson (46.13) swam a 3:01.22. Nathaniel Hickman-Chow (47.32), Michael Bank (46.83), Felix Van Cauwelaert (46.27), and Greg Kalin (45.75) teamed up for a ‘B’ relay swim of 3:06.17.
Diving Winners
- 1 meter: Cody Hopkins (Penn) – 314.20
- 3 meter: Cody Hopkins (Penn) – 334.90
There is a short term solution modeled after SIU trans swimmer Natalie Fahey who blew away the competition in the 500 free at the 2019 Missouri Valley Champs. Coach graciously took her off the scoring roster. She swims, women protected and the NCAA is on notice to get their act together. Integrity of Ivies and NCAA intact for the moment. Sportsmanship and grace, however, in short supply.
I believe everyone has a limit in regards to transwomen competing in the women’s division of competing swimming. One individual (Lia) is easier to get behind and support because being the lone person in the spotlight makes that person a minority in the most extreme sense. How many people who support Lia would still support transwomen competing if Penn had a second transwomaj on the their team? What about an entire relay? Or even an entire female team made of transwomen?
I know that seems impossible and almost certainly is, but it’s still an interesting exercise to see just how “inclusive” you really are on this issue.
I would still support Lia, transgendered women, and the Penn State women’s swim team.
I think you mean – Penn State, Philadelphia Campus
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) is a private Ivy League institution founded by Ben Franklin. Penn State is a public state supported institution with campuses located around the state of Pennsylvania. They are separate schools and are not connected in any way. “Lia” attends Penn, not Penn State.
Izzi Henig-thumbs up
Lia Thomas-go pro
Going pro doesn’t fix it. She still should t compete with women.
Swimswam commenters are a bit discouraging, but I guess consistent with human nature. If the internet existed in the 1960s, I’m guessing the pushback against Lia Thomas we see here would be very similar to what the pushback against the Civil Right’s movement would have looked like.
It’s human nature to look for data that fit our emotions – not to adapt our emotions to fit the data. The argument used frequently in this comment section is that the rules are not adequate as they stand. That one year of hormone transition treatment (or even now – 2.5 years for Lia Thomas) is not enough to offset a decade of male puberty, growth, development, etc. And you know what?… Read more »
I’ve been thinking of how to best make this analogy – usually I like to think, “How will history look back on this?” as how to best make sense of current events – and I think this comment does a pretty good job in framing it.
Regarding Civil Rights protests – look at how they were viewed back then (Twitter link!) with how they’re viewed now, it’s night and day. I’d push back on saying that violent protests are even “a legitimate problem” though. Often bad optics, sure, but we tolerate and even celebrate plenty of state-sponsored violence. The violence just has to be placed in the right context and it’s more… Read more »
Doping should be legal? You win the prize for the most stupid idea of the day. What’s your next idea, cheating on exams in school or college? Unbelievable….
Why are some things considered “performance enhancers” and thus banned – certain steroids, mostly – but other things are either perfectly fine all the time or if you’ve got a “medical exemption” to use it? (Also many other steroids!)
The lines demarcating what’s allowed and what’s banned is incredibly arbitrary, and we also do a pretty terrible job of actually catching people that are using those banned substances. Seems like creating allowable levels of everything would actually make the “level playing field” everyone seems to be clamoring for in all these Thomas posts.
(And to your other point about exams – where else are you just working on a problem completely independently? Sure, why not make all exams collaborative.)
“Sure, why not make all exams collaborative.” Another terrible idea. The slackers would let the serious students do all the work.
Wouldn’t that be a better recognition of how the real world works? Lol. Most businesses on earth operate on the backs of a few really hard workers or brilliant thinkers, and a whole lot of slackers that gotta do something.
At least there would be peer accountability in an open system. If I think you’re slacking I could say something. As it is now, the slackers still cheat, they just are rarely held accountable.
Chilly Billy. It’s all a simulation. Don’t get so mad about everything just because you don’t understand it.
I was referring to academia (school or college exams), not the business world. Please reread my comment you’re referring to.
Or maybe everyone would do better.
Such a grim view of humanity you have!
Evidently you support cheating, I don’t. If that’s a grim view of humanity, I can live with it. I also believe in sports that females should compete against females and males should compete against males. Is that grim too?
You define it as “cheating” I’d describe it as “working collaboratively.” Any reason why you don’t support “doping” either? That was where you started this aside.
And I support the same thing when it comes to sports! How weird.
The flaw in your argument is that most of the commenters here are supportive of Izzi Henig swimming in the women’s division, because he was born into a women’s body. That’s perceived as fair. Lia was born into a man’s body, and therefore has a huge physical advantage over other women, and that’s perceived as unfair. It has nothing to do with transphopbia.
If people have reservations about Henig swimming in the women’s division, it’s probably only because that flies in the face of the standard cis-phobic trans talking points, such as that it would be psychologically devastating for Lia or other trans women to have to compete in the men’s division. That certainly doesn’t seem to be the case… Read more »
Just because I keep seeing comments that ignore the hatred that is spewed – there have been lots of comments that have been deleted that do not support Izzi swimming with the women’s team, but that have been deleted for otherwise violating comment rules.
Without getting into a gray area argument about where the line for transphobia is drawn, very blatant and very direct and very obvious transphobia is very real and very prevalent in these discussions. If you don’t believe me, look on Twitter, YouTube, or some of the other sites that are covering this story.
I don’t think you have to declare that there is no transphobia in this conversation to make your point, but at any rate,… Read more »
I never said there is no transphobia. I said that transphobia is not the reason most people feel Lia Thomas’s participation in women’s events is unfair. I can’t speak to hateful comments you might have deleted, but the general negative reaction to Lia competing as a women has generally been accompanied by a desire to find a solution that allows Lia to participate in some way.
I don’t want to get into a debate over the definition of transphobic, but based on comment votes, the majority of people in this forum seem to feel it is fair for Izzi Henig to compete against women, but it is unfair for Lia Thomas to compete against women. That cannot be attributed to… Read more »
considering my comment about letting Henig compete against other XX athletes has more dislikes than likes, I think transphobia is a bigger part of this than you think
I didn’t purposefully try to make this comment an anodyne comment about supporting trans athletes, but that’s what it sorta ended up being. It’s still hovering around +1/-1 lol.
Maybe, but my comment that he has no unfair advantage, and is a great example of what trans inclusion should look like, has way more likes than dislikes.
I’m not saying transphobia doesn’t exist. It definitely does, but not every decision or policy or opinion that goes against the trans community wish list is attributable to transphobia.
I wonder how POC feel being compared to T’s
They feel all sorts of ways, cause they are not a monolith, and many are both. I wonder how they feel being a pawn in your comment, which is just trying to stir up bad feelings between communities, as if they don’t share some experience and there are not a lot of folks who are in both.
Way to go, Alex Massey!!!
Wow Matt Fallon must be broken down lol
lia thomas this lia thomas that shes not even the most high level swimmer at penn
Surprised swimmers don’t step away from the blocks in protest so unfair
someone please enlighten me on how you can be against both Thomas and Hennig competing. If you think that competition should be based on what your chromsomes (XX or XY) are, sure, I get that and that means that Thomas should not be competing against women. But then how do you justify being against Hennig?
Thomas makes sense, if you’re against both I think you’re probably just transphobic
Yeah, I mean, I think most people are probably transphobic. It’s not that they WANT to be transphobic (and for me this is an important distinction), they just are.
Most people by now know or are close to someone who is lesbian or gay, so people have become much better at accepting that. Most people still aren’t close to someone who is transgender (in part because it’s still such a marginalized community), and until that happens, it’s going to be hard for people to get past their subconscious transphobia. I also think a lot of people are still afraid of a “trap” that would make them feel like a “homosexual,” and they’re definitely not that.
I think we’re still at… Read more »
I agree that more people are (subconsciously or not) fairly transphobic than I realized these days. But I do hope we’re closer to broad transgender acceptance than a generation. (George W’s 2004 re-election campaign was super anti-gay rights, and that wasn’t very long ago! Things move slowly until they move fast.)
Right now, things are moving in a pretty anti-trans direction in a lot of places – bathroom bills and kids sports laws, gotta make a boogeyman outta some marginalized group – but I’m optimistic we’ll reverse course on all of it soon. Gotta keep hope alive, and inclusion like we saw at this meet is one way we can do that.