All the grueling mornings of waking up with the roosters paid off this weekend for the Penn women's crew team. Accustomed to 6 a.m. wakeup calls for practice, the Quakers performed admirably in their opening competition of the year. Penn finished a close second to a very strong Yale squad Saturday, while cruising past Columbia at the same time. Sunday's meet against Navy was no match as the clearly superior Quakers crushed the Midshipmen. In Saturday's regatta, Penn won its second novice and third varsity eight boats, but came up just short in the other three races. The result could have easily been different as the Quakers' junior varsity eight boat barely lost to Yale, 5:31.5-5:32.6. "It was our first race, so we were basically just trying to get everything together," sophomore Sara Gibbons said. "However, I thought it turned out well." "Yale is primarily the big competition," coach Carol Bower said. "I think we just had a little first-race jitters, we probably didn't race as well as we could have. We didn't row up to our abilities. But these races are just a selection process for the upcoming meets." The Quakers easily handled their lesser foe Sunday. Bower singled out the third varsity boat for doing an exceptional job. Forced to compete against Navy's junior varsity and higher-ranked boat, the Quakers were leading at the midpoint. It was then that one of the foot stretchers came undone on the Red and Blue boat. With only seven capable rowers left, the Quakers relinquished their lead, but not without putting up a fight. "Under such unusual circumstances, they raced great," Bower said. "I'm looking to some of them to move up to the junior varsity boat." Penn is led by senior co-captains Sonia Johnson and Melanie Onufrieff. The younger Quakers look to these two upperclassmen for guidance and support. "They have been leading the team by being such steady workers," Bower said. "They are really good about pulling the team together and they are so intense." The culmination of the 1994 season will be the Easterns. For the Quaker rowers, the Easterns are what it is all about and that's what they are shooting for. "The Eastern sprints are really what we are working toward," Gibbons said. "We have a really good team this year, so there is no reason why we can't win the Easterns." Penn is focused and all set to go after a nice beginning to what it hopes will be a championship season.
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