Lwt. Crew's line tangled by fishing boat

The Penn men's lightweight crew team was at the banks of the Orchard Beach Lagoon in Pelham, N.Y. -- racing and losing. Every Penn boat finished behind both Yale and host Columbia, with the Elis winning every race. In the varsity eight race, all three teams were within two boat lengths of each other for the first 1,000 meters. A fishing boat located at 1,200 meters created an obstacle for the Penn boat, which had to leave its lane to get around the vessel. This put the Quakers at an unrecoverable distance behind the other teams. Penn protested because of the interference of the fishing boat, but officials did not allow a re-race. The Quakers believe the obstacle played a key factor in their loss. "It completely took us out of the race," Quakers senior captain Ben Goldman said. "It killed our momentum." Besides this obstacle, the Quakers felt that the other teams had an unfair lead at the start of the race. "Columbia started about two boat lengths ahead of us," Penn varsity rower Garrett Cameron said. "It was just a poorly run race." The junior varsity eight boat complained of a similar unfair lead by both Columbia and Yale. "It was as if we weren't even in the race at the start," Penn commodore Michael Smolenski said. "This isn't an excuse [for the loss], but it definitely contributed." The Quakers also attributed their loss to a low stroke rate. According to junior varsity rower Eamon Jordan, this low rate of strokes per minute may be due to the fact that the team is using longer oars than might be optimal. This week, the Quakers are testing shorter oars as well as switching rowers between boats in order to get to the root of their problem. "Our losses make us work harder at practice," Smolenski said. "We want to fix the problems as fast as we can." The Red and Blue have reason to believe that they can turn things around this spring in time for Eastern Sprints on May 21. This past fall, Penn demonstrated an ability to emerge victorious from showdowns against high-quality competition. To begin the autumn season, the Quakers varsity eight defeated both Navy and Rutgers at the Navy Day Regatta on October 10 on the Schuylkill. The Quakers improved throughout the fall and ended on a high note, sweeping their opponents at the Frostbite Regatta on November 13. "We started out slow in the fall," Goldman said. "We're more patient now because we realize that we're building." Next weekend, the Quakers will have the opportunity to evaluate the changes that they make this week in practice when they race at Princeton against the Tigers and the Midshipmen. While the Quakers expect tough competition from both teams, they look forward to a more profitable race than their last three. "I guarantee some boats will win this weekend," Jordan said. "Or at least not finish last."