Crew teams perform well on Schuylkill

and Jeremy Thompson Last Saturday's Head of the Schuylkill marked the halfway point of the fall season, and the Quakers proved they have made considerable progress. The men's heavyweight Championship Eight boat rowed to a season-best third place. The team was defeated by a powerhouse boat from Navy and one from Temple, which defeated Penn by a mere .2 seconds. The second Championship Eight boat finished seventh, ahead of many of the best boats from other universities. The two Championship Four boats did not fare so well, placing 18th and 25th. The A boat, which placed 18th, lost to champion Navy by one minute and 13 seconds, and the B boat was more than 1:40 behind the Midshipmen. The freshmen rowed to a second-place finish, losing only to Princeton. Penn's freshmen were the only Quakers men's team to defeat Navy, showing that there is a bright future for the heavyweight crew teams of the future. Heavyweight coach Stan Bergman was pleased with the effort put forth by his team, but was careful not to get too excited. "It was a lot of fun, and they did a good job," Bergman said. "It's only the fall, though, so you've got to keep it in perspective." Bergman felt that the most important part of this weekend's success was not where the teams finished, but that everyone on the team had the opportunity to race. "Everyone rowed," Bergman said. "That's the important thing. Getting everybody out there is the way to get better." The girls' crew teams had a successful weekend, finishing no lower than fifth in any of their races. The JV was the most impressive, finishing first out of 20 teams. "They really needed this win to move to the next level," Penn coach Carol Bower said. The varsity did not fair as well as it had hoped, placing fifth out of 25 teams, but it was not unhappy with their performance. "It was a pretty good race and we all did our best to deal with the rough conditions," senior co-captain Marianne Salter said, referring to the unusually windy conditions of the day. The freshman team was also impressive in its race, finishing a close second to Syracuse. The teams will finish their fall season the weekend of Nov. 11 with two big races, the Princeton Chase and the Frostbite Regatta.