Hwt. Crew reclaims Blackwell

The Penn varsity eight took the cup home from New York by beating Yale and Columbia. The Penn men's heavyweight crew team made a victorious return to Philadelphia this past weekend after getting the best of Columbia and Yale on the Harlem River. With the win over the Elis and Lions, the Quakers made sure that the Blackwell Cup remained in the Penn boathouse for the second year in a row. The Red and Blue varsity eight was pleased to have a win to show for its efforts after a disappointing race at the San Diego Crew Classic and a down-to-the-wire loss only a week ago on Carnegie Lake in Princeton, N.J. With a time of 6:08.4, Penn clearly emerged the winner over Columbia and Yale, which clocked in at 6:12.8 and 6:13.5, respectively. Despite the less-than-perfect rowing conditions, Penn coach Stan Bergman was happy with his team's performance. "Our crew did a great job this weekend," Bergman said. "Although the conditions were tough, they handled themselves well. At this point we just hope to continue to improve and build off the victory." Penn was the favored crew entering the regatta and rowed with plenty of confidence, showing many improvements since their season opened on April 1. "We never underestimated our competition going into the race, but we didn't seem to attack it with the same mental intensity as the previous weekend against Princeton," sophomore varsity rower Mike Parker commented. "The first half of the race was somewhat tight, but once we hit the 1,000-meter mark, we separated the men from the boys and hammered it home." Despite an intense week of tough practices and a handful of sick or injured rowers, the Red and Blue were still able to come away in first place. "We are happy with the win since it is the first of the season. That was our goal -- to get the win," junior varsity rower Doug Sieg said. "However, we did not race technically as well as we would have liked and were also tired from a very hard week of training." The rest of the Red and Blue boats also showed progress, although they did not win their races. All other Penn crews -- the second varsity eight, the first freshman eight and the second freshman four -- finished in second place behind the Elis. This week, Penn will look to further improve as it prepares to race for the Adams Cup on the Severn River in Maryland on Saturday. "This week, we will focus on getting healthy and rowing better together," Sieg said. "We race Harvard and Navy on Saturday in Annapolis, and it should give us a good assessment of our speed. We expect to come away with a win." Parker echoed Sieg's sentiments and credits Bergman with the Quakers' continued signs of improvement. "We keep gaining more and more speed weekly thanks to a top-of-the-line coach who is constantly uncovering ways to increase boat speed," Parker said. "Our eight continues to gel as the season progresses both on the water at practice and on land at overpriced team dinners that charge us for extra bread." As the Quakers enter into the heart of their season, they anticipate more victories with each race. "This is just the first taste of success this boat will see," Parker predicted. "I have confidence in my boys to do whatever it takes to beat any crew out there. All nine of us have not given anything short of 110 percent all spring, and the Schuylkill Express will make no hesitation to plow through the Severn River on the 29th."

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