W. Crew returned to Schuylkill Monday

Outdoor practice begins today for women's crew, as the spring season is just over a month away. The Penn women's crew team hit the Schuylkill waters Monday for its first outdoor afternoon practice of the semester. "Its nice to be back out on the water," Penn co-captain Heather Roehrs said. "It's a relief to be out of the indoors." First year Penn coach, and former Penn rower Barb Kirch has approached the move back to the water with a similar attitude. The Quakers are very enthusiastic about practicing outdoors. Last fall's success in the Navy Day Regatta and the Head of Schuylkill have given the team valuable lessons and experience to build on for the spring season. Coach Kirch attributes her team's success to determination on the part of this year's squad, technique changes, and "annoying positive attitude training on my part." The season doesn't officially start until March 21 against Navy and Georgetown, but the team will practice every weekday and Saturday morning until the season begins. Kirch plans to get the crew out on the water a few times a week and involve them in extensive land training as well. The Quakers will also spend spring break here at Penn getting geared up for Navy and Georgetown. The first week in March won't be the first break the Quakers will have sacrificed. The Red and Blue traveled to Tampa, Fla., with all the Penn crews during winter break and spent ten days rowing and conditioning. "We accomplished a bunch of things that we needed to," Roehrs said. "It was a good time." All of this hard work should help out as they face Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Cornell and non-Ivy opponents UVA and Rutgers, among others, in the regular season. Kirch's goal for the season are simply to improve over last years results. The Quakers' coach has confidence in the team's chances, but knows that it won't be easy, as "they have some things they need to get over." The first-year coach hopes the Quakers can place high in the Eastern Sprints, where they will face perennial powerhouses Radcliffe and Brown for the first time of the season. An ex-Olympian, Kirch likes her team's chances against the stellar competition in the Eastern Sprints. Based on the results of the Head of Schuylkill in late October, where the Quakers placed among Syracuse and Rutgers, who finished fifth and sixth, respectively, at the Sprints, the team has much to build on. Kirch points out that there will be "a few races this spring where the athletes will struggle and where they will do better than they thought they would." Koehrs, like the rest of the crew, is "psyched," but hesitant to look too far ahead. "We could lose track of what you want to accomplish on a daily level. The best thing to do is take it one thing at a time," the junior co-captain said. Kirch feels the Quakers must stay focused and continue to work hard. The rest of the season will play itself out.