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rowing
Heavyweight Rowing Credit: Ilana Wurman , Ilana Wurman, Ilana Wurman

As Penn men’s heavyweight rowing approaches the end of its season, the Quakers will look to collect a pair of wins this weekend at the Adams Cup in Annapolis, Md.

Facing off against Harvard and Navy throughout the event, the heavyweights must maintain the dominant form they exhibited last weekend in their convincing performance at the Blackwell Cup. The Quakers are currently ranked seventh in the country, but they will need to find greater strength down the stretch to defeat No. 4 Harvard and No. 12 Navy.

Earlier this season in San Diego, the heavyweight squad bested the Midshipmen by a margin of 1.95 seconds. While coach Greg Myhr acknowledges the capabilities of his talented adversaries, he believes his crew is racing exceptionally well and possesses the ability to glide to victory this weekend.

“Our strategy has been simple all year long: get our bow ahead early and keep driving past the finish line,” Myhr said.

Despite the simplicity of the racing strategy, executing in Annapolis will be no easy task. If the Quakers find their stride this weekend in Maryland and defeat both teams, they ought to move up in the national rankings and place them in a commanding position leading up to the IRA Championships at the end of May in Mercer, N.J.

The men’s lightweight rowing team will also travel to Annapolis, Md. this weekend to compete against Navy. This past October, the Red and Blue lost to Navy by a narrow margin of only three seconds at the Navy Day Regatta. Since this will be the Quakers’ final regular season event, they will look to improve from their second place finish at this past weekend’s Wood-Hammond Cup on the Schuylkill River.

Despite falling to Princeton in a close contest, the Quakers recorded a convincing victory over a Georgetown team that entered the weekend’s race in the last minute as a guest team.

The conditions this weekend in Annapolis are expected to be favorable for the Quakers — they pride themselves on training in whatever weather Philadelphia may bring. When it comes to the people in the shells, Penn will continue to rely heavily on its talented senior class, which has been consistently strong throughout the season.

According to lightweight coach Colin Farrell, his senior class has played a crucial role in 2015. “As a first year head coach, you are always looking for ‘buy-in’ from the squad and for the older athletes to lead the charge in that respect,” he said. “The class of 2015 for us has been tremendous in that regard.”

Throughout his first season with the program, Farrell has guided the team to several commendable results. This weekend, he says the objective is simple: “The key to success for us is to use this opportunity as best we can and learn as much as possible.”

Defeating Navy this weekend would be a tremendous achievement for the team leading into Eastern Sprints — its championship regatta in Worcester, Mass. — the following weekend.

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