W. Crew ready for Easterns

In a very competitive race, the women's crew team lost a tri-meet for the Award Plaque Saturday on the Schuylkill River. Penn finished with a time of six minutes, 47 seconds, losing to Princeton by 14 seconds and to Dartmouth by less than two seconds. While Princeton was ahead of both crews from start to finish, Penn led Dartmouth through the first 500 meters. Dartmouth, though, pulled ahead of Penn in the middle 1,000 meters of the 2,000-meter race. The Quakers made a move with a flutter ten and a sprint at the end, but Penn was unable to catch up to the Big Green. The race marked the first time the Quakers installed a very aggressive race plan, with two settles, two flutter tens, a power ten and a sprint at the end. "We were trying this race plan out for the first time," said Penn coach Carol Bower, who plans to use this strategy in Penn's next contest at the Eastern Sprints. "We need to be a little more physically trained to handle it." Although Penn lost to both Princeton and Dartmouth, the race could possibly improve the Quakers divisional ranking. That's because the No. 7 Quakers lost to No. 5 Dartmouth by less than two seconds. When No 6. Radcliffe, raced Dartmouth earlier in the season, it did not come as close to the Big Green. Even if Penn's ranking is improved, it will not make any difference in its placement at the Eastern Sprints, the culmination of the season for the crews in the 18-team Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges. In the qualifying races of the Eastern Sprints, in which two of three crews advance to the final race, the No. 1, 6 and 7 crews are in the same initial heat. Therefore the Quakers will face Radcliffe and Princeton. Penn needs to beat one of the crews. "I really like going against Radcliffe," Bower said. "We've got ourselves in good position. We don't have anything to say we're champions about, but I feel like we are in really good position to get ourselves in the finals of the Eastern Sprints. The Sprints take place May 21 on Connecticut's Lake Waramaug.