Crew teams bring back mixed results

The Penn heavyweight crew team's performance Oct. 23 was one it would like to forget. After a promising finish at Rochester the week before, the Quakers went downhill with a disappointing race in the Head of the Charles Regatta. The team responded to the letdown with one of its best efforts of the season in the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta Saturday. The Quakers finished second in the championship race, losing only to a Brown team which is one of the best in the country. Penn also placed ahead of Navy, which had beaten the Quakers the week before at the Head of the Charles. Penn's second eight-man boat also placed highly, finishing fifth. The team used a new lineup Saturday, just as it had done in each race this season. Senior captain Sean MacDermott discounted the importance of this switch. "It was just a matter of circumstances that the guys were able to gel together," MacDermott said. "The week before it didn't happen for some reason, but it easily could have." Penn's performance was comparable to the one at Rochester two weeks ago, when the Quakers finished second. Penn followed coach Stan Bergman's race plan throughout the entire course. "We started back in the pack, but we passed boats early in the race," senior Stefan Politz said. "That helped us gain momentum." · The lightweight team continued its rapid improvement with its performance Saturday. The first varsity boat placed fourth among collegiate teams and ninth overall in the championship race. "We were only 17 seconds behind the first place team, which is not much over a three-mile race," coach Bruce Konopka said. "The three colleges that beat us were very close to us." The Quakers narrowed the gap between them and Navy, which finished ahead of them in two previous races. Senior captain Alex Rogin believes the extra week of practice with the same lineup led to the improvement. "In the race, the boat felt a lot smoother and faster," Rogin said. "We are doing the same things that we did before, but we are getting more practice together. We accomplished what we had tried to do." · The women's crew team did not perform as well as it had hoped, placing 10th and 13th in the championship race. The freshman boats did much better, placing first and fifth overall. A key reason for the Quakers' finish was a lineup change made on the day of the race. The team had not been rowing well together, so coach Carol Bower made the switch. "You try to work together," senior captain Alison Goldstein said, "but it's difficult to adjust to a switch on the day of the race."