Penn women's rowing sweeps season opener

Opening day is meant for mistakes. It’s a chance to find errors and correct them. But for Penn women’s rowing, no errors could be found.

The Quakers cleaned up in all four races on Saturday against visiting squads from Boston College and Saint Joseph’s on the Schuylkill River.

Penn returned to competition after a long hiatus - the team’s last race took place in November. Thus, Penn coach Wesley Ng aimed to make the day a true gauge of the team’s capabilities off the bat.

“Our goals for the first competition were to try to learn about our race preparation as much as we could and see where our strengths and weaknesses would have showed up,” Ng said.

In the Varsity 8 race, Penn covered the 2,000-meter course seven seconds ahead of second place BC with St. Joe's rounding out third. Later in the Second Varsity 8, the Quakers pulled ahead even further with a 12-second span between them and the visiting Eagles.

The Varsity 4 notched two more victories by margins of nearly five seconds and three seconds for the A and B races, respectively, leaving all of their opponents empty-handed.

Ng attributes much of the success to the persistence and diligence of his team during rigorous round the clock mental and physical training during the off-season.

“I think that the key to our success yesterday was really committing to how we wanted to row and trying to reaffirm our race plan and strategy and also our technical focal points even while being under pressure,” Ng said. “I think we tried to stay as internal as we possibly could.”

The competition also served a secondary purpose. Due to the unique schedule in 2016, the weekend marked Penn’s first and last outing in Philadelphia and served as Senior Day for the squad.

Junior captain Natalie Reynolds explained the gravitas of the day for her squad with emotions running high.

“It was especially exciting to have all four of our boats win on Senior Day. … So I know all of the seniors were really excited about that,” Reynolds said. “Obviously they were a little bit sad too, a bittersweet kind of day. I think they were proud of what their class can do.”

Coach echoed these sentiments, adding the impact the seniors have had on him during his first year on staff at Penn.

“I think the seniors are going to be really missed by the rest of the squad and I hope they’ll miss the Penn women’s rowing experience too. I know they’ve taught me a lot as a new coach about the team traditions that really make Penn rowing special so I thank them a lot for that,” he said.

The Red and Blue should be sufficiently challenged next weekend at the Connel Cup featuring perennial Ivy powerhouses Columbia and Yale on the horizon.

“I believe that there are absolutely no easy races at all this spring,” Ng said. “In our next four competitions we will consistently see teams in the top 10 or 14 in the nation so there’s no pressure on us to perform. We’re just going to go out and try to the best we possibly can by racing the way that we practice.”

Regarding the lack of home course advantage going forward, Reynolds noted that perhaps this notion is not one of significance for her team.

“People like racing on the Schuylkill," Reynolds said. "But it’s also not necessarily as fair of a course as other places because it has a turn in the beginning. So it’s nice to get to race on other courses as well because they’re more straight in general."

So with their first victory in the books, the Quakers chart their course forward, leaving their home in their wake.

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