Hwt. Crew sinks Northeastern on the Charles River

The visiting Quakers won the Burk Cup for the third consecutive year over the host Huskies Charles River may be the home course of Northeastern University, but the Huskies have no home-course advantage. While Northeastern has won three of the last five varsity races against Penn on the Schuylkill River, the Quakers have not lost to the Huskies on the Charles River since 1983. For those who are counting, that's eight straight wins for the visiting Quakers over Northeastern. Last Saturday was no different, as the Penn varsity eight (5-1) beat the Huskies (2-3) by eight seconds in the day's main event, 5:54.00 to 6:02.00 on the 2,000 meter course. "We had the lead at the start and we just kept extending that lead," Penn captain Greg Rauscher said. Penn's two junior varsity teams also scored victories over Northeastern. The second team won by more than five seconds -- 6:12.1 to 6:17.4 -- while the third boat destroyed their Huskies counterpart -- 6:34.5 to 6:57.8. The freshmen boat was the only loss of the day for the Quakers, as Northeastern defeated Penn, 6:15.7 to 6:18.6. Although the varsity team rowed to an easy victory, the crew did not cruise to the finish line. "We've been working on a move during the race," Rauscher said. "We needed a move to keep our push. We emphasized that and were were successful." The varsity boat, already in the lead, picked up the pace just before the halfway point in the race to increase its momentum and speed. "We need to increase boat speed at that point," Penn coach Stan Bergman said. "But that's hard because the guys are tired." The first boat's victory gave Penn the Burk Cup for the 12th time in the past 17 years. Named after Wharton alumnus Joseph Burk, the trophy stayed with the Quakers for the third consecutive year. Penn's second varsity team did not have the Burk Cup to race for, but still blew the Northeastern boat out of the water from the opening gun. "We jumped right out on them from the beginning," second boat coxswain John Whittaker said. "The lead we got in the first 1,000 meters was the same lead we ended up in." Like the first boat, the second boat used the race to work on some technical aspects of its race. "We were just trying to row a little bit higher, a little bit harder to build endurance," Whittaker said. Although the second boat did not record a complete success in this goal, Whittaker believed the crew was "moving in the right direction." The IRA championships are the main focus for the Quakers, but the heavyweight crew has another race for a cup on Saturday at 10 a.m. Penn (4-1 Ivy League) will take on Ivy foe Cornell (3-4, 0-2 Ivy League) on the Schuylkill River. "After the Cornell race we'll taper pretty good," Bergman said. "We'll work hard until then, though." The winner of the Penn-Cornell race receives the Madeira Cup -- a trophy the Quakers have won 15 of the last 16 years. Last year the Quakers defeated the Big Red by 15.1 seconds -- their largest margin of victory since 1991.

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