W. Crew fails to catch foes on the Charles

Last Friday, the Penn women's crew team headed to Boston to compete for the Orange Cup -- a race they knew would be challenging, considering the strength of opponents Northeastern and Syracuse. The Quakers first varsity finished the 2,000-meter course in 6:58.9, 9.5 seconds behind the Huskies and 4.8 seconds behind the Orangewomen. While Penn's varsity eight was disappointed with its third-place finish, the crew was pleased with its rowing. The rowers believed that they showed improvement from their race the previous week against Georgetown and Drexel, when the Quakers' lack of aggression and the Hoyas' fast start kept Penn from a victory. "We raced 100 percent better than last week in part because we're recovered from [the San Diego Crew Classic] and because we were motivated by last week," Penn coach Barb Kirch said. "They knew they needed to race harder and they put it together very well." The Quakers stayed competitive despite missing junior Rachel Jolley. Last week, the team learned that Jolley -- who had been rowing four-seat -- will not be rowing for the remainder of the season due to asthma. "I was very pleased because I thought the varsity raced a very tenacious race," Kirch said. "They did a lot of things they needed to do in terms of race strategy and in terms of losing someone [from] the boat." Penn's competition was fierce on Saturday. Northeastern's varsity eight was undefeated in the regular season last year and ultimately finished third at the Eastern Sprints. At NCAAs, the Huskies took an impressive fourth-place finish in the varsity eight grand final. Syracuse is also a strong crew this year; the Orangewomen beat both Cornell and Yale on April 3. "[We] went into the race knowing it would be very challenging," said sophomore Rachel Pringle, who stroked the varsity eight on Saturday. "We went in with a specific race plan. We executed the plan and responded the way we wanted to." According to senior Lauri Kaufman, Penn's plan going in to the race was to be persistent. "Instead of going out there for a race we went out there for a battle," Kaufman said. "We wanted our first 500 meters to be the fastest we ever pulled and the next 500 to be faster than that. We knew that as hard as we'd been working we had to work even harder. We had to find it deep within our gut somewhere and pull it out." The Quakers showed improvement from last year, when they came in 15 seconds behind Northeastern. On Saturday, Penn shaved six seconds off that margin. Although they did finish third, the Quakers managed to stay close to second-place Syracuse, finishing only a boatlength behind. "It's disappointing to lose a race," Pringle said. "Nevertheless, it was a close race and we raced well and we raced hard." Penn's second varsity eight was happier with its finish -- first place. The Quakers came in three seconds before Syracuse and five seconds ahead of Northeastern. Penn's second varsity boat remains undefeated this season; last week, the crew outrowed Georgetown by 20 seconds. "We knew that our competition would be tougher this week," said senior co-captain Melinda Patterson, who rowed in the second boat. "We knew if [we won] it wouldn't be by a significant margin but we rowed to win and it worked." Penn's freshman eights both took second-place finishes. The Quakers' first novice boat finished an impressive 12.6 seconds ahead of third-place Syracuse. "The first freshman boat felt they'd had their best race so far," Kirch said. The Quakers generally agree that they have improved since last year. "It's a very strong season and we're deeper and faster than last year," Kirch said.