Overdue W. Crew prepared take home Class of '89 Plate

The Penn women's crew team is overdue for a winning regatta. After winning the Class of '91 Plate in their first competition of the spring season against Navy and Georgetown, the Quakers have yet to bring home another winning trophy. However, heading into this weekend's races against Cornell and Rutgers on the Schuylkill, the Quakers know they have the physical and mental preparation to win the Class of '89 Plate. "In the past they've been solid crews, but now we're faster and stronger than we've been before," Penn senior Becca Rothman said. History is working against the Red and Blue, with Penn last winning the plate in 1991. In the past two years, the Quakers have placed third, although only by a margin of 16 seconds combined. "It definitely adds an extra incentive to win this weekend," Rothman said. After last weekend against Northeastern and Syracuse, when the margins of victory over the Quakers were literally a matter of a few seconds across the board, the boats now know what they must do come race time. "It taught us to set our sights higher and that we need to be super aggressive from start to finish. We're really expecting to win," senior co-captain Loren Berman said. Penn coach Barb Kirch was happy with the growing adaptability of her boats. "It shows their ability to make changes from race to race. They're just a very coachable team," Kirch said. This may be the Quakers' magic year to win the plate, as the varsity eight will enter the race ranked ninth in the EAWRC polls, three and six spots ahead of Cornell and Rutgers, respectively. However, the second varsity eight, first novice and second novice boats are all ranked behind Cornell and Rutgers. The results of Saturday's regatta will factor into the Quakers' ranking heading into Eastern Sprints, which can be considered the climax of the crew season before the NCAA Championships are held at the tail end of the month. "We need to do well this weekend and next weekend [at Princeton with Dartmouth] to put us in good position for Sprints," Rothman said. As May quickly approaches, the pressure is beginning to intensify with more thoughts of competing well at the Eastern Sprints and earning a bid to the NCAA Championships. "We approach each race with the same intensity, but everything is working towards Sprints and NCAAs," Berman said. Obviously, after essentially an entire school year of training, the Quakers are about as physically fit as they're going to get. What takes priority at this point in the season is fine-tuning their skills, making sure that the Penn boats are as in-synch as they can be. "We're focusing on setting our rhythm from stroke to stroke," Rothman said. On Saturday, racing the home course with ever-growing confidence and experience should be more than enough to lead the Quakers to the bigger and better results they expect from themselves.

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