W. Crew pays back Syracuse at home

Competing on the Schuylkill last weekend, Penn's varsity women's crew team redeemed itself against Syracuse and Northeastern while the novice and varsity four boats continued their undefeated seasons. Of Penn's boats, all but one took first place -- the first varsity eight's time of 6:15.22 placed it second behind Northeastern. Their narrow victory over Syracuse (6:16.28), however, marked improvement from the San Diego Crew Classic where Penn lost a close contest with the Orangemen by two seconds. "Our goal was to beat Syracuse," rower Diane Lincoln said. "We had a lead on them in San Diego, but when they pulled ahead we couldn't get it back." Lincoln explained that the Orange Challenge Cup was more of a "dog fight," with Penn matching every advance by the Orangemen. Her teammate Maggie Klarberg agreed, also noting an increase in Penn's intensity. "We actually accomplished something with our moves this time," Klarberg said. "We were much more aggressive with our attacks." Lincoln and Klarberg also raced together in Penn's first-place finishing varsity four boat (6:50.6). Such double racing is unusual because most crews place their "extra" rowers in the four. Due to the lopsided nature of the competition, with first-team varsity rowers competing against third-teamers, Penn's four must beat their opponents by significant margins each time to qualify for nationals. They certainly did that last weekend; Drexel was second to Penn by 11 seconds. "It started off as a close race," Klarberg said, "and then we just ran away from them with about 1,000 meters left." In the second varsity eight race, Penn was three seconds ahead of Northeastern and six ahead of Syracuse. The Quakers were looking to avenge the three-second loss to Northeastern in San Diego that resulted from a "jump slide" that slowed the Quakers down. "In San Diego, one of the seats wasn't working properly so we lost," junior coxswain Alisa Grubbs said. "This was a revenge row for us." Penn's stroke seat Anne Plutzer agreed with her teammate. "This was a race of vindication because our loss to Northeastern kept us from qualifying [for the finals] in San Diego," Plutzer said. According to Grubbs, the race was close until a curve in the Schuylkill helped the Quakers "get up by another length." From there, the Quakers "kept it steady," she explained, countering every move until the final sprint when Penn pulled away to take first place in 6:22.5. For the novices, the Orange Challenge Cup was a chance to keep their undefeated streak alive. It marked their first meeting with Northeastern and Syracuse, as they did not make the trip to San Diego with the varsity rowers. Despite facing new crews, the novices could still measure their improvement. "The boat feels better," freshman rower Ursula Ahrens said. "We're making more moves and taking power 10s." She explained that "power 10s" are 10-stroke efforts to increase the speed and power of the boat. Ideally, the coxswain initiates the acceleration and the rowers strive to reach and maintain a quicker, tougher pace. According to Ahrens, the novices got off to a "pretty good start, but not the best." Aggressive rowing and strong encouragement by the coxswain, however, helped them gain a boat's length advantage by the midway point. From there, Penn never looked back, finishing first in 6:20.08.