Host M. Crew hopes to beat Princeton

A common thread runs through the races that the two Penn men's crew teams will be competing in this weekend. No member of either Penn crew has ever seen a Quakers victory in either race. The lightweight team is heading north to Derby, Conn., to compete with Yale and Columbia for the Dodge Cup tomorrow, while the heavyweight crew remains in Philadelphia to compete with Princeton and Columbia for the Childs Cup. Yale has taken the Dodge Cup home every year -- except for one -- since 1982. The Quakers won in 1992 but have taken third behind both the Elis and the Lions for the past three years. Meanwhile, the heavyweight team has compiled a 36-35 overall record since the inception of the Childs Cup race in 1879. The Quakers have won eight races since 1982, with the Tigers winning the other eight. For the last five years, though, the race has been all Princeton. "There's always a rivalry with Princeton," coach Stan Bergman said. "We've just been fortunate enough to beat them in Sprints -- where it really matters -- in two of those years, '96 and '98." Last year, Princeton's varsity eight entered the Eastern Sprints ranked No. 1 in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges poll. Heading into the varsity eight grand final, the Tigers had captured the first freshman and second varsity races and recorded the best time in the varsity heats. But Penn stunned the field in the final, securing the victory in 6:05.0 and preventing a Princeton sweep. Heavyweight captain Greg Rauscher was especially emphatic in expressing his loathing of Princeton. "I want to crush them," Rauscher said. "Since I've been here, they've been the main competition. I know almost all of the guys on their team, but when we're out there I hate them, just really hate them, and want to beat the shit out of them." Tim Thompson, who will be racing in the three-seat of the first varsity eight for the first time since a stress fracture sidelined him for two months, also commented on the magnitude of the race. "Huge," Thompson said. "Other than IRAs and Sprints, this is our biggest race." The Quakers have had two weeks to prepare for this big race, as only the lightweight crew raced last weekend. "It's a good thing," Bergman said of the time off. "It lets us regroup and get things going again." Rauscher also emphasized the benefits of the weekend break. "We really got a chance to work technically and to work on rowing together," Rauscher said. "We got to work on our starts which weren't really weak this year, but we were really big in the starts last year." The lightweight crew will also need good starts this weekend, as the Quakers will be facing two of the toughest lightweight crews in the country in Columbia and Yale. Yale's home course on the Housatonic River will add another twist. "There's a big turn in the course about halfway through," lightweight coach Bruce Konopka said. "The turn is so bad that they stagger the boats a lot, about three-quarters of a boat length, to make up for it." Konopka, who had been playing with the lineup before last week's race, decided to maintain the status quo in practice this week. "We went back to the lineup we had in San Diego," Konopka said. "We've been working with different techniques and things to get more rhythm. Certainly over last week we've improved." Junior Gerry Berry, who will occupy the three-seat for tomorrow's race, talked about the crew's work in practice to get more rhythm. "We've been working on better ratings shifts," Berry said. "We're working on trying to settle in at 35 [strokes per minute] for the main part of the race, then we take it up two for the sprint to the finish. [You] can't lose control when you bring it up or you really lose a lot of rhythm." Berry is confident that the work in practice has been beneficial. "There was definitely an increase in speed from last week's race," Berry said. While Konopka decided to continue working with the same lineup he used to start the season, Bergman made one lineup change to the heavyweight first varsity boat, allowing Thompson to reclaim his spot on the first varsity and moving sophomore Doug Sieg to Thompson's spot on the second varsity boat. Bergman didn't think that the switch would upset the chemistry of the boat. "The guys are really good trainers," Bergman said. "And they're just trying to get better rowing together. They've got a great attitude. They're great people to work with, they're an inspiration to me, with the schoolwork [they] have to do and the training they go through. They're a tough bunch of guys."