Navy edges W. Crew in first race of season

A mere four-10ths of a second was all it took for Navy to walk away with a win over Penn's women's varsity eight crew at the Navy Day Regatta on Saturday. "We knew it was close from what our coxswain told us," Quakers senior co-captain Loren Berman said. "I just felt that there was more there than what we gave." It wouldn't have taken much more to defeat Navy, especially over the three-mile Schuylkill River course. In fact, it is rare to find two boats that finish less than a second apart in a head race like Navy Day, where typical times between boats usually range between a few seconds to a minute. In a head race, the boats' starting time intervals are staggered and the winner is only known once the official times for each boat have been posted. Penn's varsity four was more successful against Navy, finishing in first place by 17 seconds. "The four came together really nicely," Berman said. "Another part of it was that we didn't have such high expectations for the four; the whole mentality was just to have fun. We just went out to have a good race and a good time and that's what happened." In fact, the four's success has created a question of which boat, the varsity four or eight, will be prioritized for the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston, the first big race of the season. Since key varsity rowers raced in both the four and the eight, and those rowers will only be allowed to race in one boat for the Head of the Charles, the team must decide in which boat they will be placed. The JV eight took a decisive first place victory over Navy on Saturday, finishing with a lead of over a second. "They really just sat up and kicked it home," senior co-captain Kealy O'Connor said. The freshman crews also did well this weekend, with the first freshman boat taking first place and the second freshman boat taking third behind Temple. The first freshman boat was "well ahead of everyone else, and they needed to be," freshman crew coach Susann Seybolt said. "This is not a huge race and we need to get ready for the Charles." From all accounts, the freshman boat is looking strong this year. "We're stronger than we were last year at this time," Seybolt said. "No huge stars, a lot of solid people." The varsity team will now go to work preparing for the Head of the Charles, which is one of the largest regattas in the country. "[Navy Day] is basically just a dress rehearsal for the Charles," O'Connor said. Penn has been successfully improving its conditioning in anticipation of the Head of the Charles. "We had an erg test last Monday and people dropped an average of over a minute. We'll probably do one next week and I expect people to drop even more time," O'Connor said. "I think [head coach Barb Kirch] works us real hard and it is consistently showing up in the ergometer." The conditioning should help the Quakers make up those fractions of a second on Navy when the teams meet again later in the season. "I'm pretty confident [that] if we see Navy again this fall we should be able to beat them," O'Connor said.