W. Crew happy despite losing all four on Lake Onandaga

The Penn women's crew team lost all four of its races on Saturday at the Orange Challenge Cup against Northeastern and Syracuse. But if you ask the Quakers about their performance, they'll tell you that winning isn't everything -- at least not this past weekend in upstate New York. "We're really happy about the race in general. We were in control the whole way. It was a much better race than at Yale [on April 1]," Penn senior co-captain Loren Berman said. Northeastern was victorious in the varsity eight, junior varsity eight and novice eight, while Syracuse took first place in the varsity four. However, perhaps most importantly for the Red and Blue, all of the Penn boats finished no more than 16 seconds behind the first-place boat. The Quakers entered the regatta two weeks removed from their last competition. As a result, they were physically and mentally refreshed after two weeks of concentrating on refining their own skills. "It was great racing across the board," Penn coach Barb Kirch said. "The two weeks of specific training and conditioning was clearly evident in their racing. The other crews were just faster." Heading into the regatta, the Quakers knew they would be up against solid competition, especially with the Huskies in the water, whose varsity eight remains undefeated. "We knew Northeastern was going to be a strong team. We had a boat meeting the night before, and we planned where we were going to be and that actually ended up happening," Berman said. The racing conditions of the course on Lake Onondaga were far from ideal, which in the end worked against the Red and Blue. "The course was really choppy. We had trouble setting a rhythm through the body of the piece," Penn junior Dara Friedman said. All in all, the Quakers feel that they are back on track after a disappointing loss to the Elis. "At Yale, when they started to move on us, we panicked and didn't react. With Northeastern, we kept our composure and moved right with them," Berman said. "The whole way down, the three boats were jockeying for position." Despite the fact that the Cup remains with Northeastern for the fifth consecutive year, the race results provided a needed confidence boost heading into the prime of the season. "When you're a second away from winning, it shows that we have enough energy and strength to stay with a good team. We're looking forward to beating them at Sprints [in May]," Friedman said. This Saturday, the Quakers hope to continue to improve upon their solid performance at Syracuse in their regatta against Cornell and Rutgers on the Schuylkill. "We're really looking forward to racing Cornell, especially on the home course," Friedman said. Heading into the upcoming weekend, Penn's confidence is on the rise. "There's definitely room for improvement, but now it's a matter of fine-tuning," Berman said. Now at the halfway point of the spring season, the Quakers look to utilize their growing confidence and racing experience to help them race well in May at the Eastern Sprints and NCAA Championships.

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