W. Crew places second in season-opening Class of '91 Plate

The Penn varsity eight boat defeated Navy but failed to top Georgetown in this weekend's regatta on the Schuylkill. In difficult weather conditions, the Penn women's crew varsity eight split its home opener, the Class of '91 Plate, with a win over Navy, but a loss to Georgetown. The Quakers weren't pleased with their result. After a long offseason of rigorous training, the squad had high hopes and expectations for this weekends regatta. "The varsity eight didn't perform to its fullest potential," co-captain Heather Whalen said. "We had a poor start? but the sprint at the end was good. We hope to build on it." Georgetown finished first to take the Plate with a time of 6:32.6, followed by Penn at 6:41.7 and Navy with a 6:44.77 time. The Quakers' second varsity boat finished behind both Georgetown and Navy. The freshmen boats upset both the Hoyas and the Midshipmen. Penn's top boat had a strong final sprint to pull away from the Navy crew, which was even with the Quakers for the first 1,000 meters. "It was a combination of anger and disappointment," Whalen said. "Disappointment because we didn't perform as well as we should've and anger because we could've done better." While the Penn crew was mentally tough and had a strong desire to win, but technical problems slowed the boat down. The Quakers weren't finishing their stokes as they should have. "We need to increase speed by increasing the length of our strokes," said Whalen. "(Penn) coach (Stan) Bergman says that this is 'a sport of inches'." The harsh weather conditions, especially the strong tailwinds made it difficult for the rowers to get a feel for the water. The crew hopes that by the end of the season and under optimal conditions, they can get their speed down to at least 6:20. Penn still has plenty of work ahead before it can get down to that time, but the team sees this weekends' regatta as the first step in that direction. "The varsity eight boat didn't perform to the fullest potential? but [the race] opened our eyes to our weak points," Whalen said. On a brighter note for Penn, both freshman teams raced well. In their first college regatta, the freshmen boats finished 6:48.2, followed by Georgetown (6:54.7) and Navy (7:03.9). The second freshmen boat finished 7:06.9, followed by the Hoyas (7:24.6) and the Mids (7:56.1). "They rowed extremely well together," Whalen said. "They were steady throughout and never got complacent; they kept pushing and never quit."