Hwt. Crew returns Blackwell Cup to Philly

Yale had held the cup, contested on the Harlem River in New York, for three years. The Penn heavyweight crew, in its best performance this season, came home with its first victory of the season and brought the Blackwell Cup back to Philadelphia after a three-year absence. The Quakers were facing Yale and Columbia on the Harlem River in New York. Because of difficult conditions -- rain, winds and a strong tide -- the race didn't start until 6:30 p.m., five hours after the scheduled start time. "The whole team did a great job handling the delay," Penn coach Stan Bergman said. "They showed a lot of poise." As a result of the conditions, the race time was almost two seconds longer than last year's winning time. Because of the difficult course and the length of the race, the Quakers were happy just to finish the race and to still come away with a victory. "It was a solid race from start to finish," Penn sophomore Garrett Miller said. "We just kept taking it inch by inch. We rowed a strong race and we rowed the rates we wanted. Because we were going against the tide, we were so tired. We just wanted to get out and done with it." For the first time since 1993, Penn, with a time of seven minutes, 23.6 seconds, took the cup back from Yale (7:32.1). Columbia finished the regatta in 8:12.9. "It was the first time in three years that we won the Blackwell Cup," Bergman said. "It was nice to get it back from Yale." The lightweight men's boat split the two regattas on the Schuylkill River this weekend. The Quakers, who finished with a time of 5:56.8, lost to Princeton with a time of 5:53.6 in the Wood-Hammond Cup on Saturday. The Red and Blue (5:56.1) outlasted Georgetown (5:59.0) in another race the next day. "[The Princeton race] was real close. We didn't do as well as we would have liked to off the start, but we did do a good job of catching up, but in the end we just didn't have enough," Penn junior Justin Slatky said. "Against Georgetown, we were a lot cleaner and in control the second half of the race. Once you have the lead, its much easier to keep." In other action, the women's boat lost to a bigger, stronger and faster Rutgers crew but just got by Cornell, the reigning Class of '89 Plate holder. The Scarlet Knights with a time of 6:44.9 finished ahead of the Quakers (6:50.4) who were only 3/10 of a second ahead of the Big Red (6:50.7). "It was our best race of the season," Penn co-captain Heather Whalen said. "It was a big improvement. We were down coming into the last 500 meters and in the sprint we pulled it out." After Rutgers, which had never won the cup before, pulled out to an early lead, the race was on for second place. The two boats were neck and neck the entire race, but according to Whalen, because the Quakers wanted the victory more, they were able to come away with their first Ivy League victory of the season. After last Saturday's disappointing performances, the crew program redeemed itself with this weekend's strong races.