M. Crew ready to end its fall

For the Penn men's crew teams, this weekend's Frostbite Regatta will mark the close of the fall season on the home waters of the Schuylkill. After a series of distance races, the two squads will have a taste of the upcoming spring sprint races as they get the chance to row a two-kilometer course alongside their competition. Penn's heavyweights plan to enter three eights in Saturday's regatta. "We have a new lineup for the Frostbite," senior commodore Doug Sieg said. "The boat has been moving well the past several days, and we are excited to race this weekend." The heavyweights are hoping to rebound from their performance two weeks ago on their rough home waters. "We were disappointed by our fifth-place finish at the Head of the Schuylkill and want to use this race to do better and give us some momentum going into winter training," Sieg said. "We are going to race hard, and I am confident that if we do we can come out on top." After the Frostbite, the Red and Blue will put their boats into hibernation for the winter and begin a period of intense indoor workouts until the return of warm weather. "We will enter the winter next Monday and begin two-and-a-half months of rigorous training including lots of lifting to gain strength," heavyweight captain Keith Sutter said. Aside from their annual winter trip to Tampa, Fla., the Quakers will remain indoors and off the water until March. "All of this work will pay off in Tampa during winter break and then in San Diego at our first race in March," Sutter said. This weekend, Penn's lightweights are looking for a taste of the success they experienced at last year's Frostbite. After Saturday's regatta, they will participate in the Braxton Memorial Regatta on Sunday as well. "So far this season we have not raced up to our potential in the last two races," junior commodore Brian Conley said. "The Head of the Schuylkill was the most disappointing because we thought we were ready to race, but let the conditions beat us." According to Conley, the fall season is not a projection of what will happen in the spring. Sprint races are won during the tough months of winter training. Penn lightweight captain Ed Hetherington echoed Conley's sentiments. "The team that trains the hardest in the winter is going to be the team to beat in March and all the way through until Eastern Sprints," Hetherington said. "We will be that team." The lightweights plan to enter many boats, both eights and fours, to maximize everyone's opportunity to race as they attempt to rebound from the past two regattas. "We will not accept anything less than being the best, so naturally finishing behind some of the schools in our league was not acceptable," Hetherington said. After making improvements both on and off the water since the Head of the Schuylkill, the Quakers are anxious to see the results of their efforts. "We have made tremendous progress over the past two weeks and hope to see it all come together for us on race day," Hetherington said. Both Penn teams are excited to row the fast two-kilometer course this weekend before heading indoors for the winter until March.

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