Lwt. Crew adjusts but still falls

For the Penn men's lightweight crew team, the week leading up to Saturday's Matthews-Leonard Cup on the Schuylkill River was, according to coach Bruce Konopka, "unsettling." All four Penn crews finished behind Harvard and Cornell last weekend. Invited guest Harvard won three of the four races, while Cornell took second in each race except for the first freshman eight. "I don't think we showed our top speed, that's for sure," Konopka said. As a result, Cornell -- which competes with Penn for the Matthews and the Leonard Cups -- took home both, despite winning only one race. The Leonard Cup goes to the winner, between Penn and Cornell, of two of the top three races --- the first and second varsity eights and the first freshman eight. The Matthews Cup goes to the varsity eight winner. Penn's freshman crews did not come any closer than 12 seconds of second place but Konopka was not overly concerned. "[The freshmen] have raced better than what they showed last weekend," Konopka said. Penn's first varsity came closer than any other Penn crew to moving out of third place in any of the races, as the Quakers were only 6.6 seconds behind Cornell in the race for the Matthews Cup. Konopka attributed the less-than-ideal showing to a lineup change he made, then reversed, before the race. Konopka had sophomore Matt Morano -- who had been rowing stroke -- and senior Alex Muniz -- at the seven seat -- switch seats in the boat last Monday. He then switched them back on Thursday. "On Thursday I decided that they weren't good changes and I went back to the original lineup," Konopka said. Konopka rethought his own decision thanks to the help of some crosstown rivals. "We work out with Temple every Thursday morning," Konopka said. "We just didn't do as well as we normally do against them. Even though the boat looked faster, it wasn't actually moving faster." While Muniz -- who found himself back in the seven seat for the race -- was not happy with the finish, he did not feel that practicing with a different lineup affected the team. "You can't be happy with that finish," Muniz said. "We tried to make some changes to go faster but they didn't work out." Muniz, though, had no problem with Konopka's lineup-tinkering. "As a senior, all that matters to me is winning," Muniz said. "So, if [Konopka] thinks that [a change] will help the team, I'm willing to do whatever." In addition to Muniz, the Quakers top eight also featured sophomore Lauren Leiman at coxswain, junior Gerry Berry at the six seat, Garret Cameron at the five seat, sophomore Sean Ford at four, captain senior Dan Blaney at three, junior Ben Goldman at two and sophomore Mark Hodgson at bow. Muniz remained extremely confident regarding the team's prospects for the rest of the young season. "We have a lot of speed in us," Muniz said. "Man for man, we can compete with the best schools in the Sprints League. We just have to row together." Hodgson shared Muniz's optimism regarding Penn's potential. "We've been struggling all season," Hodgson said. "But we showed some real speed in San Diego." Hodgson credited the Quakers' speed in San Diego to the combination of another seat switch -- this one involving Blaney and Cameron -- and a new technique involving what Hodgson termed as a "more direct leg drive." What was the cause then, of the Quakers' apparent backslide Saturday on the Schuylkill? "Lack of rhythm," Hodgson said. "It's something we've been struggling with. Everyone rowed really really hard, that was apparent, but you have to do it all together, or it doesn't really matter."