Regatta season enters the home stretch

As most of the Penn community is winding down the year and preparing for the summer, the members of Penn's crews are heading into the final, and most important, stretch of regattas of the season. The Quaker women will be on Lake Carnegie, N.J., competing against Princeton, Virginia and Dartmouth for the Award Plaque. The Tigers have won the regatta the last four years with considerably faster times than the Quakers or the Big Green. "Princeton and UVA are strong crews," Penn senior Meera Bhatia said. "We are looking to Dartmouth as our main competition. We are focusing on Dartmouth." Although Penn has never placed better than third in the Award Plaque, it is not discouraged this year, especially, after this past Saturday, when, for the first time in five years, Penn defeated Cornell. "Last weekend, we proved to ourselves that we can race," Bhatia said. "The next few weeks will help us get to the next level of speed." After this race on Lake Carnegie, the Quakers will spend the next three weeks preparing for the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges Sprints, to be held May 18 on Lake Waramaug in Connecticut, where they will face strong competitors like the Tigers. In both the Easterns and the Award Plaque, the crew will have to work on staying strong through the middle of the race, where they have repeatedly faded. To prevent this, they will continue to stress aggressiveness through the third 500 meters of the race. "We have good execution on the start of the race, but we need to continue to build better power application and rhythm for the middle of the race," Penn coach Angie Herron said. "We will also return to endurance training, to build better stamina for the closing stretch of the race." Penn's lightweight men will be on the Severn River in Maryland competing against Navy. The Quakers are hoping to avenge their loss to the Midshipmen last year. "We are looking to destroy Navy this weekend," said Penn junior Justin Slatky. "This should not be much competition for us, and should be a good tune up going into Eastern Sprints." The lightweight boats are going back to their initial lineup, with senior TJ Berdzik -- the team's most valuable rower last year -- and sophomore Brad Tabas back in the varsity boat. Penn coach Bruce Konopka feels that this change should help both the varsity and junior varsity boats. Both the lightweight and the heavyweight men will be competing on May 11 in the Eastern Sprints on Lake Quinsigamond in Massachusetts. The heavyweight men will be defending their championship and looking to repeat as the Eastern Association Rowing Colleges title holders. In their last competition before the Sprints, the heavyweight men will be vying for the Adams Cup against Navy and Harvard on the Severn.