W. Crew squeaks by Cornell

The Red and blue rowers captured the Raritan Cup for the first time in a long time. For the Penn women's crew varsity eight, nine was the magic number this weekend. After winning the Raritan Cup in 1991, the Quakers never had it in their possession any time in the last nine years. Until Saturday, that is. With a time of 6:02.6, the Red and Blue edged Cornell -- last year's Cup winners -- by nearly two seconds and Rutgers by eight seconds. "To be successful under pressure is just continuing to build our confidence," senior co-captain Loren Berman said. "I have not beaten Cornell once in my Penn career, so it was nice to get that under my belt before graduation." The junior varsity boat did not fare as well as expected, placing behind the Big Red. The Scarlet Knights did not enter a boat in the JV race. "We just didn't row to our potential. We were solid, but there was just something missing. Now we're going to go back to the drawing board to try and pinpoint and fix what went wrong," senior co-captain Kealy O'Connor said. Both varsity four teams placed behind Cornell A and B, despite rowing solid races. "We've been working really hard on our aggressiveness?. We had a great race," Penn sophomore Cathlyn Sullivan said. The first and second novice races were both won by Cornell, with the Quakers placing third and second, respectively. "Both schools traditionally have strong freshman boats. Going in, we knew they were going to be very fast boats," first novice coxswain Haben Goitom said. Cornell won the Class of '89 plate, awarded to the team that wins the most races in the regatta. "Cornell raced extremely hard in every event. They have tremendous depth. Winning the points trophy was no surprise for them," Penn coach Barb Kirch said. All boats seemed to be pleased with the continued progress they have been making but still know that they have yet to peak, a good sign heading into the culmination of their spring season -- Eastern Sprints. "There's still more there -- we haven't reached our full potential yet. We're looking forward to tapping into that as Sprints come up," O'Connor said. The regatta, besides showing the individual strengths and weaknesses of each boat, demonstrated how solid the team has become as a whole. "They have succeeded so far based on courage, desire and strength. To go to the next level, they need a little more feeling for the boat," Kirch said. "They need to beat Dartmouth and come as close as they can to Princeton to be able to say they've had a tremendous season, no matter what happens at Sprints." Up next for the Quakers is a trip to Princeton with Dartmouth on Saturday. Rivalries will be abundant with both the Tigers and the Big Green. "Barb [Kirch] coached Dartmouth before she came here, so they're always looking to beat us. We want to make her proud," O'Connor said. "And the Tiger-Quaker rivalry is just as true in women's crew as it is in men's basketball." In the last regatta before Eastern Sprints on May 14, the Quakers are looking to build confidence and momentum that will hopefully result in their second trip to the NCAA Championships in three years. "We're definitely still improving. We need to keep up this intensity until Sprints," Sullivan said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.