W. Crew has high hopes for NCAAs

Although Penn did not qualify as a team, its varsity four will entr as one of the three seeded boats in the event. Nearly three weeks after competing in the EAWRC Sprints and long after classes ended, five diehard members of the Penn women's crew team are still practicing in preparation for the NCAA Women's Rowing National Championship. Although the Quakers struggled through a 3-6 cup season and finished third in the Third Level Final at Sprints, a solid showing this season in the four with coxswain has earned Penn a right to compete in the second annual NCAA Championship, held tomorrow through Sunday at Lake Lanier Rowing Club in Gainesville, Ga. "It started out earlier in the season as just kind of another boat to race," junior Rachel Jolley said. "Then we turned it from a third four into a varsity four in an attempt to make it to NCAAs." Rounding out the four for Penn, which Jolley will stroke, will be two seat Diane Lincoln, three seat Maggie Klarberg, four seat Kealy O'Connor and coxswain Catherine Eikel. Though emphasis in collegiate crew is placed on the eight, Penn decided to concentrate its efforts on assembling a successful four that could qualify for NCAAs. However, as a result, the athletes served double duty in cup races, rowing in both the Varsity eight and the four. "We ended up racing a lot of third fours [in cup races]," Jolley said. "Those races really didn't have a lot of relevance for us except to see how big a margin we could get between the other crew." Nevertheless, the rowers believe their crew has an excellent shot at winning a medal in the upcoming competition, especially since their focus is entirely on rowing the four. "We had some amazing races during the spring, without practicing at all," Jolley said. "Ever since we've been concentrating on the four, we've gotten a lot faster. I'm really excited because I think we have a very good chance of doing extremely well." Penn did race two varsity fours in the Award Plaque race on April 25, losing to Princeton by four seconds and Dartmouth -- the team first-year Penn coach Barb Kirch led to NCAAs last season -- by 0.7 seconds. "Considering the huge margins between those two crews and us in the eight race [22 and 18 seconds, respectively], with the close times in the four, it tells us that we have a shot at doing well [at NCAAs]," Jolley said. The NCAAs are a team competition, with eight teams -- four regional champions and four at-large teams -- qualifying to send boats in all three events, the Varsity I eight, the Varsity II eight and the Varsity four. In team competition, Washington looks to defend its crown, which it earned last year by a margin of 17 team points. In addition to the eight qualified teams, eight at-large boats have qualified in each of the three events. The NCAA has stipulated that the field of at-large entries must include Division II and III participants. As a result, the varied field of sixteen in the four event includes team qualifiers Princeton, Harvard and Michigan. Event qualifiers Penn, Iowa and smaller schools -- including Williams and Smith colleges -- will also have the opportunity to compete. The field will be split into three heats that will feed into the grand final for the four, with three crews earning top seeds in the varsity four event. Penn, along with North Carolina and Southern California, has earned one of those top seeds as a pre-race favorite heading into the Gainesville competition.