Penn women's rowing finished their fall season strong at the Rivanna Romp, with their A boat finishing fourth in a packed field.
Penn women’s rowing competed in its final regatta of the fall racing season on Sunday morning, with the Quakers’ top boat finishing fourth in a high-caliber field.
The Red and Blue entered four racing teams in the Varsity Eight competition at the Rivanna Romp. Penn A finished in fourth place with a total time of 13:22.9. Penn B finished in eighth place with a total time of 13:46.1. Penn C finished in 16th place with a total time of 14:09.1. Penn D finished in 18th place with a total time of 14:30.3.
“I was genuinely pleased with how we approached the regatta, the enthusiasm and the focus all the way to the end of the fall was something that we improved on from last year. It was fun to see all four of our varsity eights race it up,” coach Wesley Ng said.
Penn came off a very successful performance on the Schuylkill River on Oct. 29, with five titles in separate divisions. But on Sunday, Virginia defended its home Rivanna Reservoir with a victorious total time of 13:01.1. The Cavaliers’ A boat was dominant, finishing 19 full seconds ahead of any other boat. Duke A finished second and Virginia B third to be followed by Penn A.
Across boats, the stroke seats stood out for the Quakers.
“What I saw from all four of the different stroke seats from the varsity boats is that they were not afraid to row a very competitive rating, and that to me, shows quite a bit of courage,” the second-year coach added.
With the fall season over, the Quakers will now focus on training and preparing for the spring racing season. The team is eager to work and build off its improvements from this fall.
“Our role becomes the same to move indoors and become the fittest version of ourselves we can be and become more cohesive as a team to do something really special in the spring,” Ng said.
There are twenty-five freshmen on the varsity and novices teams. Their progression from fall to spring season will be something to watch out for.
“I think the freshman contribution has been really fun to experience and identify over all of the different crews, and at this point I don’t necessarily consider them that much different than any other of the varsity athletes,” Ng said.
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