Crews wrap up last regattas before Eastern Sprints

In the last regattas of the season before the Eastern Sprints, the Penn rowing teams traveled to Navy and Princeton. While the women and the heavyweight men came back disappointed with their performances, the lightweight men accomplished what they had set out to do. In the Adams Cup on the Severn River in Maryland, the heavyweight men, with a time of five minutes, 57.12 seconds, lost to Harvard (5:55.33) but defeated Navy (6:02.85), which had won the cup the past two years. The Quakers, who had finished third at the season-opening San Diego Classic four spots ahead of the Crimson, were hoping to win the Adams Cup, which they hadn't won since 1991. "The varsity boat was disappointed in their performance," Penn coach Stan Bergman said. "They had an off day, but I think we can correct our mistakes for our next race. They tried hard, but our timing was off." Also on the Severn, the lightweight men were competing for the Callow Cup with Navy. The Quakers finished with a time of 6:10.70, and the Midshipmen finished with a time of 6:18.00. The Red and Blue had wanted to take back the cup after losing a tough one last year on the Schuylkill. "We rowed real well," Penn coxswain Justin Slatky said. "In the second half of the race, we were able to put it out of reach for them. It was a good race going into Sprints for us. We made some improvements and we're looking to compete with Yale and Princeton." The Penn women on Lake Carnegie were competing with Princeton and Dartmouth for the Award Plaque. Virginia, which was only participating as a guest and therefore not eligible for the Plaque, won the regatta with a time of 6:57.7. The Tigers, who finished behind the Cavaliers with a time of 7:04.1, won the Plaque. The Big Green (7:11.2) finished third in the regatta followed by the Quakers, who finished a distant last in a time of 7:20.1. Penn had finally made the adjustments that they'd been working on the entire season, but were still unable to finish any better than last. They had continued to row strong through the third 500 meters of the race which had been their Achilles' heel this season. The Quakers were successful in keeping each stroke in the water longer, thereby increasing the output of each stroke. With all the adjustments made, they didn't understand why the result in the regatta wasn't better. "We expected to beat Dartmouth," Penn senior Rachel Meuke said. "We don't know why we lost because we rowed a strong and aggressive race. We felt that we rowed together and technically better." Rowing on Lake Carnegie was difficult for Penn, because the markers were difficult for the coxswain to see and she wasn't able to judge the length of the course. In the end, this benefitted the Quakers because they didn't fade in the middle portion of the race like they previously had. The Quakers hope to use this weekend's experience and the coming weeks practices to improve and prepare for the Eastern Sprints, the main test for their season.