Hwt. Crew 'Sprints' to third place

the Quakers were unable to defend their title at the EARC Springs, falling to both Princeton and Brown. Last year, the Penn heavyweight first varsity boat surprised everyone in the rowing world by finishing first in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints. But last Sunday the Quakers needed a furious sprint to the finish just to claim third against improved competition. While Penn nipped Princeton in the Grand Final last year, Brown's top eight and the undefeated Tigers were too strong for the Quakers last weekend. Princeton won in 5:42.10, while Brown was more than four seconds behind, finishing in 5:46.99. Penn's first varsity boat rowed a time of 5:48.91 at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., to capture third. But the Quakers were behind the leading pack for most of the race. "We fell behind when [the top four boats] made a big move right around 1,000 meters in," heavyweight captain Greg Rauscher said. Penn was in fifth place with 350 meters to go but pulled ahead of fourth-place Harvard soon after. The Quakers still needed a breakneck effort at the finish, however, to edge out Wisconsin by 35/100ths of a second for the bronze medal. "[Coxswain Mark Redding] called the last 10 strokes and the crew really responded to that," heavyweight coach Stan Bergman said. The varsity eight was also closing in on Princeton and Brown, but the two Ivy rivals had too much of a lead on the Red and Blue. The second heavyweight boat did not enjoy the same success as the first boat. The crew finished in fourth place in the second varsity race in 6:00.08 -- just 34/100ths of a second ahead of Harvard. But the top three teams -- including a Wisconsin crew that Penn beat in the preliminary heat -- were each more than eight seconds in front of the Quakers. "We had a good start," second boat coxswain John Whittaker said. "In the first 500 [meters] we were right in the pack -- we probably even had the lead for a little bit. But we just couldn't hold it." The second eight did manage to keep the chasing Harvard squad at bay, however. "We realized toward the end that Harvard was right next to us and we had beat them two weeks ago," Whittaker said. "We were like, 'We're not gonna let this happen' and we held them off." The varsity lightweight team, meanwhile, was not in complete synchrony after a few lineup shifts. The lightweight eight, which switched four rowers' seat positions in preparation for the race, finished a disappointing ninth. Penn switched Gerry Berry and Sean Ford and used Alex Muniz, instead of Matt Morano, as strokeman. But the Quakers believe these changes were implemented too close to Sprints to be effective. "[The lineup switches] definitely gave us some speed that we were looking for," lightweight varsity rower Mark Hodgson said. "But it was a big change and we didn't have enough time to prepare." The new-look lightweight boat rowed a strong middle of the race, but could not overcome a slow start. "They really had us off the line," lightweight coxswain Lauren Leiman said. "Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, all of them. They were ahead of us from the first stroke." The Quakers' lightweight first boat will revert to its original lineup in its final race of the season later this month at the IRA Championships in Pennsauken, N.J. In the other heavyweight races, Penn's third varsity boat finished fourth while the Quakers' top freshman eight did not make the Grand Final. On the lightweight side, both the Quakers' second varsity boat and the first freshmen boat finished fourth in their respective Petite Finals, tenth overall. Overall, Princeton's rowers dominated at Sprints. The Tigers finished first in the first and second varsity races in both heavyweight and lightweight competition but did not score a victory in any of the freshmen races. The Quakers heavyweight rowers will travel to Northeastern this weekend, while the lightweight crew has three weeks off from competition to prepare for the IRA Championships.

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