Crew set to finish season

and Jeremy Thompson This weekend marks the end of the fall season for the Penn crew teams. The lightweight men's team will be racing on the Schuylkill in the annual Frostbite Regatta. Coach Bruce Konopka will be putting a lot of boats on the water, with five Championship Eights and three Fours set to race. Konopka is eagerly anticipating the Frostbite. "It's more or less just to have fun, since it's the last race. We're going to mix the boats up a little bit," he said. The women's crew teams are hoping to finish their fall season with a sweep in both their varsity and JV races at the Frostbite. Last year the varsity placed third in its race, but this year the Quakers believe they have an excellent chance to win. "We think that we are a much stronger team this year and we plan to go out there and take it," coach Carol Bower said. Of the 20 or so teams participating, Penn sees Temple as its only real competition, with whom it has been flip-flopping all season. "To beat them would be a great end to our season," Bower said. The heavyweight team will be visiting central New Jersey for the Princeton Chase Regatta. This will be the first time Penn's heavyweight team has ever raced in this Regatta, and coach Stan Bergman hopes that his rowers will rise to the occasion. The Quakers are likely to face tough competition from crew powerhouse and hometown favorite Princeton, as well as strong teams from Rutgers, Yale and Georgetown. "We want to get to a little higher level as far as our performance in competition," he said.