M. Crew home for Head of Schuylkill

After an impressive performance in Boston last weekend, the Penn men's crew team is back on its home water. Although the U.S. National Team -- whose crew took first place in the Championship Eight at last weekend's Head of the Charles Regatta -- and Yale's top-notch crews will be among their competitors once again this weekend, the Penn men's rowing teams feel that the improvement gained in this week's practices will prove beneficial in Saturday's Head of the Schuylkill. This Saturday, the Quakers will host their second-to-last race of the fall season as they compete against crews such as Navy, Georgetown and Rutgers in a 2 3/4-mile race down the Schuylkill River. "Practices have been going well," Penn lightweight crew coach Bruce Konopka said. "We've been making progress and we hope to keep building on that. We hope to get a good race in." Konopka notes that the second half of the approximately 13-minute race, which is typically when rowers begin to get tired, has been an area the team has been focusing on this week. "[During the second half] you try to keep holding your technique and just keep the boat moving," he said. "We've been doing some longer pieces this week and we've been building on our training and conditioning. We're in good shape." Penn sophomore Jim Miller, who will be rowing in the lightweight eight boat this weekend, agrees that rowing long stretches in practice was essential for the team's preparation for tomorrow. "We put in a huge number of meters every day," Miller said. "We usually do twice as much as the race will be." Unlike the spring season, when boats compete in shorter sprint races where all the crews start at the same time, in head races such as this weekend's event, a larger number of boats compete, with each crew starting at staggered time intervals. In this kind of race, a boat might not be sure how it placed immediately after finishing the race. "If you pass people you're doing well and you just have to stay with it," Miller said. Last weekend, Penn's heavyweight varsity eight finished an impressive ninth place out of 46 boats on the Charles River. The U.S. National Team and Yale, both of which will both be on the Schuylkill this weekend, outraced Penn by 50 seconds and seven seconds, respectively, last week. Penn sophomore Mike Parker, who will be rowing in the stroke position of the junior varsity eight this weekend, said that his boat hopes to improve on its finish this weekend. "We've made a lot of improvement in the last week," he said. "Individually we all have certain technical things we need to work on and by working on those things together it will make us row together as a whole, and help us be as effective and efficient as we can." Lightweight varsity eight rower Sandy Henderson believes this weekend is especially important for the Quakers since their fall season is coming to an end. "We've been working all season for this," he said. "I think there's a lot of adrenaline." Henderson acknowledges that while it's always nice for a crew to race on their home course, Penn's familiarity with the Schuylkill will not be a deciding factor.