M. Crew reaches semis of Henley

Ending a nearly 11-month season, the Penn heavyweight eight boat lost to Harvard in the semifinals of the Ladie's Challenge Plate at the Henley Royal Regatta on England's Thames River July 4. The Penn team earned a trip to England and the prestigious regatta with its first place finish at Eastern Sprints, but not through official qualification standards. "We like to reward the team when they win a big race like Eastern Sprints or IRAs," Penn coach Stan Bergman said. "The trip was completely funded by crew alumni and fund-raising. It didn't cost the University a cent." By competing well against the best crews America has to offer, the Quakers were rewarded with a chance to compete with the best from rest of the world. Founded in 1839 and held annually except during the two World Wars, Henley is the oldest regatta in the world. It is also one of the largest, attracting a record 552 crews in its various races in 1998. These crews represented 19 different countries, including first time entrants from Guatemala, Chile and Turkey. While crews came from all parts of the world for different races, the Red and Blue prepared themselves for the Ladie's Plate. "The Ladie's Plate is the second fastest of all the eights behind only the Grand Challenge," according to Bergman. Penn found itself in a field that also included crews from Great Britain and Germany, as well as Ivy League rivals Harvard and Dartmouth, Big East team Syracuse and the first-ever boat from Turkey. Unlike the American brand, races at Henley feature only two boats per race. Earning a bye in the first round, Penn beat R-C Favorite Hammonia from Hamburg, Germany, by 1 1/4 boat lengths in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, the Quakers finished nearly three boat lengths behind Harvard on the one mile, 550-yard-long course, which is slightly longer than the standard 2,000 meters. "We led until the final two minutes," Bergman said. "We would have liked to beat Harvard, but it just didn't work out that way." The Crimson, the team Penn edged out to win Eastern Sprints, beat Cambridge in the finals to win the Ladie's Plate. Although the Henley Royal Regatta only lasted from July 1 through July 5, the Quakers spent two weeks overseas, not just preparing for the races -- but also as a reward for their fine season. "They're really a good group of athletes," Bergman said. "They did a good job during the year." The year for these athletes ended on the Thames in the wake of Harvard's boat, but it began over 10 months ago -- last September on the Schuylkill River. The Quakers will be back on that same river in September, allowing them only a little more than a month without scheduled training and competition. Many miles of rowing will follow during the 1998-99 season. After these miles are logged, the Quakers may find themselves back on the Thames next July. · A group of 40 women under the age of 19 reported to Penn this summer in hopes of making the Junior National Women's Rowing Team coached by Penn's women's crew coach Barb Kirch. After weeks of training they competed at the U.S. Junior National Trials on Carnegie Lake in Princeton, N.J., on July 12. Among the athletes who trained under Kirch, 14 were the American representatives at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Ottensheim, Austria. The team qualified two boats, an eight-person and four-person, and also sent two alternates to the competition. Although Kirch worked with 40 of the best young rowers in the nation, only the two boats qualified for the World Championships. Although few rowers qualified to go to Austria, the others who competed at the U.S. trials had their season extended. Many of the rowers competed at the CanAmMex Regatta in Cincinnati. Despite not qualifying for the world team, most members of the original 40-person group gained valuable experience. A large percentage of them will be rowing for college teams in the fall. Two will be rowing for Penn in '98.