Improvement can't save W. Crew from third

The women's crew team is rowing faster, but it finished last Saturday. Penn's varsity women's crew coach Barb Kirch has a handy way of showing how much her team has improved over the past couple of weeks. Comparing their times against each other and versus Penn, Kirch drew conclusions from examining the performances of the Quakers' toughest recent competitors -- Syracuse and Cornell. Penn narrowly defeated the Orangemen two weeks ago in the Orange Challenge Cup on the Schuylkill, finishing just one second ahead in the first varsity eight (6:15.22). That race was a quest for revenge, following Syracuse's close victory over the Quakers the previous week in San Diego. It looked as if the two crews were extremely comparable. But Penn shattered that notion in the Class of '89 Plate last Saturday, coming within two seconds of the Cornell crew that recently beat Syracuse by 10 seconds. It's a complicated argument to follow, but Kirch simplified it. "It's confirmation we're getting faster," she said. "Six seconds faster." Unfortunately, performances can't always be judged with such complex math. Looking at last weekend's results, Penn's time of 6:40.9 was last in the varsity eight behind Cornell (6:38.9) and Rutgers (6:34.8). The Quakers were not disappointed in the performance, though, noting the improvement in the boat's rhythm and the strength of its start. "Their first 600 was the best I've seen yet," Kirch said. "They were using long, fluid strokes." Penn rower Anne Plutzer explained the benefit of lengthening stroke time. "If you take a lot of strokes in a whirlwind fashion, you're basically just spinning your wheels," Plutzer said. Seventh-seat Diane Lincoln said the Quakers have been working in practice to improve their rhythm. Instead of focusing only on "pressure pieces," she said, "we've been trying to get a nice swing going." According to Lincoln, the Quakers had been "going a little nuts" with their sole emphasis on speed at the expense of each rower's comfort and "feel for the boat." Both Plutzer and Lincoln noted the utility in re-adjusting their focus, describing their boat as "smoother" in the Class of '89 Plate. Having lost to Cornell by such a scant margin, Kirch and her team could not help but contemplate which small factors could have made the difference, most notably the course's staggered start. Kirch explained that one portion of the Rutgers course was similar to the Schuylkill, with a bridge followed by a turn. On this course, however, the sequence occurred twice, so "they had to start on a stagger to accommodate for it." Such a start made it difficult for the Quakers to gauge their proximity to Cornell. "When we analyzed the video, we saw places where we were leading," Plutzer said. "Had we known, we would have been more confident." In other events against Cornell and Rutgers, Penn's junior varsity boat, minus two rowers ill with pneumonia, finished last (7:03.5), as did its second novice boat (7:05.7). The first novice team's time of 6:49.3 was second behind Cornell. Penn did not compete in the varsity four so as to conserve the rowers' energy for the Eight.