Lwt. Crew barely falls to Navy

Despite the Penn lightweight crew team's loss to Navy in its season opener last Saturday, it should not be ashamed of its performance. Penn came within .9 seconds of victory over the Midshipmen, who were one of the six 1995 Eastern Sprint finalists. "Nine-tenths of a second doesn't say much," Quakers coach Bruce Konopka said. "I was happy with everybody's performance. It's a good way to start off the season." The varsity's time in the 2,000-meter race, held on the Quakers' home course on the Schuylkill River, was 5 minutes, 51 seconds -- barely slower than Navy's time of 5:50. The junior varsity boat lost by 14 seconds and the second freshmen boat, having technical difficulties, lost by 14 seconds as well. The first freshmen boat -- the only winning Penn boat of the day, beat Navy by 6 seconds. "It was nice to win," Penn freshman Dan Blaney said. With the strong performance from the freshmen first boat and varsity's close loss, the team sees hope for the rest of the season. "It's hard to work hard and not win," Konopka said. "But this tells us that we have some pretty good speed." "It wasn't a disappointing loss because it showed us what we need to work on," Quakers senior Geoff Menkowitz. Penn's narrow loss to a top team like Navy not only shows the capabilities of Penn, but it also shows the rest of the league what the Quakers can do. "It tells us that we're right up there with the top crews," Konopka said. "We can still get a lot better." "We'll see Navy again at Sprints," Penn junior captain Justin Zacks said. "We know what we have to do." Losing three out of four boats is a tell-tale sign for the lightweight team that they need to raise their level of racing. It is certain that the Quakers know that they have their work cut out for them if they want to have a successful season. And the close race this weekend is evidence that they are at the top of the pack. "It was a good way to start off the season," Konopka said. "It looks good for the future."