Heavyweight crew preps for IRA Championships

The toughest competition that the Penn men's crew teams may face this Saturday is not Cornell but overconfidence, for which there are two major reasons. The first is that the Quakers are going to Cornell with the knowledge that they have posted better times than the Big Red in earlier races in recent years. "They've traditionally been a really strong team, and they have a new coach this year," heavyweight junior Dixon Gillis said. "We always try to take the attitude to never take our opponent lightly. We go our there as though we're racing the national champion. But we should win." The biggest reason, however, is that there will be the tendency to look ahead to the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in Camden next weekend. The IRA Championships is the most competitive meet of the year. While this weekend is merely a dual race against Cornell, Penn is already looking forward to the IRAs, which will feature some of the fastest 28 teams in the country -- including the University of Washington and University of California at Berkeley. The Quakers are coming off last weekend's race in which they defeated Northeastern to regain some confidence. Previously, Penn had a poor showing at the Eastern Athletic Rowing College's Sprints, just one year after winning that same meet. But technique adjustments made in practice have the Quakers heading in the right direction again. "One of our problems is getting the boat balanced," Penn heavyweight captain Caspar Bentinck said. "We're also continuing to work on getting the guys flowing together." The conclusion of classes and final exams has only aided the Quakers. Penn has been able to practice on the Schuylkill River twice a day, at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., since exams ended two weeks ago. "It's pretty intense this time of year.," Gillis said. "We're still trying to get a little faster every day." With the dawn of better weather, increased traffic on the Schuylkill has sometimes made for difficult conditions. But those factors may be making the Quakers better. Penn beat Northeastern last weekend despite unusual modifications to the course due to the poor weather conditions. Instead of rowing one 2,000 meter race, the meet was broken down into three 1,400 meter races. "That made the race a lot different," Gillis said. "You always want flat water and you want to row with the wind, but we obviously can't do anything about that." The Quakers can attribute their success to increased time on the water to work on improving speed and technique. Mondays through Wednesdays, Penn works on its speed, while on Thursdays and Fridays, they try to allow their muscles to recover in preparation for their Saturday races. While their increased schedule might seem likely to fatigue the crews, coach Stan Bergman has tailored the workouts perfectly. "Practices are shorter with high concentration," Bentinck said. "We are emphasizing quality rather than quantity." One crew that has been turning out high quality performances is the freshman heavyweight boat, which remains undefeated. Mark Redding, the coxsain of that boat, assessed the team's chances in Cornell. "We're trying to use it as a stepping stone," he said. "Our goal is to keep picking up speed." He explained that it is difficult for teh freshman boat to maintain a competitive edge becasue it has been so successful. Unlike the varsity heavyweight boat -- which sees each race as an opportunity to improve -- the freshman boat is trying to build on a season which is already remarkable. "One thing with crews that win Sprints is that they get cocky and lose their edge," Redding noted. They motivate themselves with the goal of reaching the Henleys, a prestigious race held in England during the summer. To reach the Henleys, they will have to beat the toughest competition in the country at IRAs. But first, the Quakers cannot look beyond this weekend's dual meet against Cornell -- another chance to show their hard work is paying off and that they are peaking just in time. "You don't want to embarrass the crew, but we want to see how fast we are," Bentinck said.