M. Crew will face nation's best at San Diego Crew Classic

The No. 4 ranked heavyweight varsity eight hopes to qualify for the finals with defending national championship Washington. Today the men's crew varsity eights will travel to San Diego for this weekend's San Diego Crew Classic in Mission Bay. Weeks of preparation will be on display as the Quakers race a challenging field that includes several of the top 10 teams in the country. The Quakers' heavyweight varsity eight is ranked fourth in the country in the preseason poll and will race its initial heat Saturday. The competition will include second-ranked Cal-Berkeley and the fifth-ranked Harvard Crimson. Also in the field are Oregon State, Purdue and Stanford. The top three teams in the heat will advance and race in the grand final for the Copley Cup against a field that is expected to include the number one ranked and defending national champion Washington Huskies. Although the field is stacked, the rowers are undaunted. "Realistically we expect to win, there is no reason we can't," junior Garrett Miller said. "We hope to get off the line fast, stay with the field and around 700 [meters] we hope to make a big move with a power 10 and then we start the sprint." Miller certainly won't be fazed by the competition. He has won the past two 2000 meter indoor ergometer races for the college division and was recognized in the "Faces of the Crowd" section of the March 23 issue of Sports Illustrated. Penn heavyweight coach Stan Bergman sees the race as a chance to measure his team's potential. "It will be a good challenge and we'll see what we've got," Bergman said. For the lightweights, the SD Crew Classic represents something different, a chance for redemption. They opened their season with a disappointing weekend loss to Rutgers. Of the four boats that competed on the Raritin River last Saturday, only the second varsity crossed the line ahead of their counterparts. Several oarsmen, including varsity rower Dan Blaney, did not make the trip to New Brunswick, N.J., due to sickness and consequently coach Bruce Konopka was forced to make numerous lineup changes. Due to the shape of a course that included a turn to the right, Penn was placed in the starting blocks with a slight lead. The Quakers came off the line at a rating of about 40 strokes-per-minute and settled at a rating of 34-36 spm. "Our start was alright, but not as good as we have done it in practice," senior captain Joe Melchiors said. At the turn, Rutgers held a slight lead and powered through for a four-seat advantage. The Scarlet Knights maintained a high stroke rating throughout the race and Penn was unable to bring their rating up to the same level during the final sprint. The Rutgers varsity came in with a final time of 6:13.0, ahead of Penn's time of 6:20.7. "We went about as fast as we do in practice and you really have to step it up in racing," Melchiors said. "We should have beat them. We've haven't lost to them in a few years." The second varsity fared better with a five second victory in their race, 6:32.2, against Rutger's 6:37.0. "We came off the line strong with a pretty good start and walked out to open water in the first 750 meters," second varsity coxswain Matt Engel said. "We were able to hold them off at a boat length for pretty much the whole race." Two freshmen boats raced their first race as Pennsylvania oarsmen in the regatta season. The first freshman boat came in with a time of 6:31.3 to Rutgers' 6:23.6 and the second freshmen lost 7:22.9 to 6:49.4. "The primary factor [we lost] was they overstroked us and we underestimated Rutgers. I don't think this will reflect how well we do this year," freshman coxswain Lauren Leiman said. The second varsity and freshmen lightweights don't race again until they travel to Cornell the weekend of April 11. In the meantime, Penn's varsity crews are taking their shots at the nation's elite.