M. Crew ends fall campaign

This past weekend's three regattas marked the last hurrah for the Penn men's heavyweight and lightweight crew teams' fall seasons. The heavyweight Quakers closed out their season on a high note at the Frostbite Regatta. In the two-kilometer sprint down the Schuylkill, the Red and Blue varsity eight was first to cross the finish line. "We led the race from start to finish. It was great to be in control from the first stroke to the last," Penn senior captain Keith Sutter said. "I attribute this victory to the great gains in strength we have made this fall through weightlifting." The varsity eight won by a boatlength of open water, approximately six seconds ahead of the boat from Dowling. "We raced a solid piece and were never threatened for the lead," senior commodore Doug Sieg said. "This avenges our loss to Dowling two weeks ago. We took a 10-stroke piece at the 1000 meter mark to 'drop the bomb on the Croatians,' where we took our open water lead." Always a tough rival, Dowling's squad features rowers from the Croatian and Yugoslavian national teams. Penn's second varsity eight finished first by a comfortable margin of two boatlengths. "The weekend gave our younger guys a chance to taste victory and gave the whole squad confidence," Sieg said. "This was the first step in the long road to Worcester, Mass., and the Eastern Sprint Championship." Penn's third varsity eight finished second to Ithaca by the narrow margin of .2 seconds. "We fell back to third or fourth at the start, but showed we had the mental edge to come back from such a large deficit," sophomore rower Chris Greenleaf said. "We blew by all the other boats as if they were standing still, but the race was just not long enough to allow us to make up for the start." Penn coach Stan Bergman was pleased with his team's performance. "It was a good way to end the fall season," Bergman said. "The crews raced very hard and gained some good experience." The squad will now head indoors for the intense months of rigorous winter training. "We enter the winter with lots of confidence after this weekend's race," Sutter said. "It is the beginning of a winning habit for Penn crew 2001." For the Penn lightweights, the close of the fall was bittersweet. In Saturday's Frostbite Regatta, the Quakers emerged with two victories in the varsity four and the junior varsity eight. "The four had a good race and pushed hard through Penn State," senior Penn captain Ed Hetherington said. "We won the six-boat event by about three seconds." The junior varsity eight opened up distance between its competition during the race and won by a comfortable margin. "Our eight led from start to finish," Hetherington said. "We beat second-place Villanova by two boatlengths." The varsity eight, however, did not fare quite as well, finishing second behind Colgate. "It really put a damper on our day, and we had hoped to recover from it to race well at the Braxton," Hetherington said. After three races at Saturday's Frostbite, the Penn lightweights returned to the Schuylkill the next day to race in the Braxton Regatta. The Red and Blue entered two fours in two separate heavyweight races. Each boat finished second against six other crews. The second varsity boat rowed to a fourth-place finish in another heavyweight eight event. "Overall, they had a good race finishing a close fourth against some much larger heavyweight teams," Hetherington said. The varsity eight finished fifth in Sunday's heavyweight race. "We were not pleased with our result," Hetherington said. "Despite our racing against larger teams, everyone felt we should have been more competitive." The lightweights are also off the water and are now beginning their period of winter training and strength building. "Coming in second in the lightweight eight race was a harsh wakeup call letting us know that we can't take anything for granted as we train over the winter," Hetherington said. On Sunday, the Penn novice heavyweights traveled to Princeton for the Belly of the Carnegie regatta. In a field of 21 other boats, the two Red and Blue entries finished in ninth (14:16.02) and tenth place (14:20.24), respectively. Princeton had the fastest time, clocking in at 13:42.35.

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