Lwt. Crew expects to leave Scarlet Knights in their wake

Penn ended a successful 1996 spring season with an appearance in the finals of the national championships. The Penn men's lightweight crew season will continue on March 29 with a competition on the Schuylkill against Rutgers. The team, headed by captain Geoffrey Menkowitz and commodore Joseph Melchiors, has great potential this season and intends to do extremely well. The varsity team is a powerhouse of upperclassmen with five returning members, all of whom competed on last season's team that made it to the finals of the national championship at the IRA Regatta. Last season's most valuable rower, T.J. Berdzik, returns as well as several of the rowers from the freshman first and second boats who performed well last spring. The novice team is composed of 13 promising freshmen and two sophomores. "Six of the guys [on the novice team] have rowed in high school" Penn assistant coach March Massey said. "The rest just started in September. They are all doing pretty well." The Quakers have been going with two practices a day for the last five months without a race and according to junior T.J. Berdzik, the team should have a good chance for a successful regatta against Rutgers. "Rutgers finished ninth at Eastern sprints last year and did not compete in Nationals," Berdzik said. "We feel that we are going to do well against them this weekend. Mainly we feel confident right now." The junior rower, a native of Cheektowaga, N.Y., went on to comment on the wealth of depth this spring's crew team has. From the freshman squad to the varsity team, every member "has made major improvements." The reason for the Quakers' new-found success in 1997 can be attributed to the long hours of practice down at the crew house this past winter. The grueling workouts which occurred 12 times a week (even the crew team gets Sunday off) have helped strengthen the Red and Blue mentally. "Our varsity team is very strong," Berdzik said. "Our coaches always tell us that crew is 80 percent mental and 20 percent physical. And there is no question we are mentally ready for Saturday."