Penn crews close fall seasons at Chase

The men's heavyweight eight was the Quakers' most successful boat, finishing in third place. The Penn crew teams are finished practicing against other teams. This past Sunday, the Quakers finished out their fall seasons with the Princeton Chase. The race marked the end of the first season in which coach Stan Bergman was guiding the women's, men's lightweight and men's heavyweight squads. This system seemed to pay off, as Penn had a very successful autumn, even though you couldn't tell from Sunday's results. The highest finishing Penn boat was the men's heavyweight eight that finished in third place, behind Princeton and Yale, with a time of 13 minutes, 29.17 seconds. The men's heavyweight four boat also did well finishing fifth with a time of 15:42.12, while the woman's eight boat finished in 13th, with a time of 16:09.55. The men's lightweight boats couldn't do much better, with the eight boat finishing in eighth and the four boat coming in twelfth. Although these results would make it appear that the day was unsuccessful, this was not the case. "We had a good row," Penn captain Caspar Bentinck said. "We had a tough week of practice because of the rough weather, but we still had a good day. A lot of our team rowed in two races today, while all of the other teams people only rowed in one race each. Hopefully this will pay off in the spring." Since the spring regattas are the heart of the Quakers' season, the fall schedule serves merely as a training ground. Therefore, Penn does not look at standings for an indication of success as much as the technical improvement from race to race. "The fall put us off to a good start," Bentinck said, "but we still have a lot more to do, and have a tough winter ahead of us."