M. Crew sloppy on Schuylkill

On the choppy waters of the Schuylkill River, the Penn men's heavyweight and lightweight crew teams entered the stretch run of their fall season. This year's Head of the Schuylkill regatta was marked by low temperatures and less-than-ideal rowing conditions. In the championship eight race on Saturday, Penn's varsity heavyweight boat finished fifth with a time of 13:10.27. Princeton Training Center placed first with a time of 12:29.45. "We raced hard on Saturday but not very clean, and we did not row well together," senior commodore Doug Sieg said. "We are obviously disappointed with the results, but the only thing we can do now is improve." Dowling College, Syracuse University and the Cairo Police Club finished second, third and fourth, respectively. "The water was also very choppy in parts of the course, and we just didn't handle the conditions as well as the other crews," Sieg said. The Quakers second varsity boat finished 14th in the championship eight race with a time of 13:15.67. Right behind them was the third eight, in 15th place clocking in at 14:03.65. "We have one week left on the water to prepare for the Frostbite regatta, and then we are inside for the rest of the winter," Penn captain Keith Sutter said. "Then we will concentrate on the basics of building strength through weights and hours and hours of erging." Although crews have the opportunity to measure themselves against their competition in the fall, the spring is when the real competition begins. "We are going into the winter determined to be tougher than any other crew that comes out to race us in the spring," Sutter said. "This league is competitive, but we are right there with all the other teams. We have seven months until Sprints, which we will win." The first heavyweight freshman boat finished second to Princeton with a time of 13:37.18, while the second eight placed 14th at 14:43.14. The Red and Blue lightweights also felt the affects of Mother Nature. "Although we rowed well technically, we didn't handle the rough conditions well and suffered because of it," Penn coach Bruce Konopka said. Penn's first boat finished seventh in the lightweight eight race with a time of 13:54.81. Not far behind was the second boat, finishing 10th and clocking in at 14:16.01. "We got our first chance to see our competition, but the conditions really got the best of the team," junior commodore Brian Conley said. "The strong winds really made the water rough, and we let the conditions dictate how we raced." The New York Athletic Club won the event with a time of 12:43.80. "I think the biggest problem this year has been that we are not racing up to the potential we have shown in practice," Penn senior captain Ed Hetherington said. "We are going to continue to work on this and hopefully gain some consistency, which will allow us to go into a race without skipping a beat." In the four with coxswain race, the Red and Blue lightweights finished 20th. "This week, we are going to focus on lifting and building strength, since that seems to be our weakness compared to our competition," Hetherington said. The lightweight freshmen helped add a high note to the day for Penn, finishing first and second with times of 15:39.34 and 12:43.14 in the novice four with coxswain race. "We have two more races before we close up and move indoors, and we are looking to win some medals and defend our titles from last year's Frostbite and Braxton regattas," Conley said. The heavyweight Quakers will spend the remainder of their time on the water preparing for the Frostbite regatta, while the lightweights prepare for the Braxton regatta before putting the boats into hibernation for the winter.

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