Lwt. Crew extends long string of losses

The Penn lightweight crew team's rough start continued Saturday, as the Quakers finished last at the Dodge Cup race against Columbia and Yale on the Schuylkill River. The Quakers, ranked ninth nationally, finished with a time of 6:04 in the two-kilometer race. The No. 1 Elis led the whole way en route to finishing in 5:45. No. 3 Columbia crossed the finish line in 5:52. "The varsity hung right with Columbia off the start and almost until the end," Penn junior commodore Brian Conley said. "But Yale was just too strong Saturday." Yale featured a squad that returned many members of the team that finished first globally last summer at the Henley Regatta in England. Penn has finished last in each of its three cup races to date this season. This includes races against Ivy rivals Harvard and Cornell. The Quakers' junior varsity boat also placed last with a time of 6:28. Yale and Columbia had times of 6:03 and 6:16, respectively. Despite these disheartening results, the team still found some positives from last weekend's race. "We raced really well overall and made a lot of improvements," Conley said. "That showed a little bit when we hit the water." The Red and Blue were hurt Saturday by the illness of junior Jim Miller, who was diagnosed with strep throat and figures to miss two weeks. He was replaced on the varsity eight by senior Dave Wilson. "[The lack of continuity] messed up the rhythm of the boat a bit," Conley said. Wilson joined coxswain Olivia Kuhn-Lloyd, Brendon Tavelli, Matt Courtin, Tevis Jacobs, Tim Mah, Luca Trento, Dan McCormick and Greg Eshbaugh. Despite the rough start, the Quakers remain optimistic for the remainder of the season. "The big-gest shot to our confidence came against Harvard and Cornell when we really didn't race well," Conley said. "But we felt we improved a lot between that race and this past one." The team knows that it must improve continuously, as EARC sprints and IRAs are the biggest races of the season but do not come until May and June. Sprints are where the Ivy title is decided and the national champ is crowned at IRAs. "We've been changing techniques to build up boat speed," Conley said. "We design our training to allow us to peak at IRAs and sprints. You can only peak so many times during a season, not every week." Penn next faces No. 4 Princeton on the Schuylkill this Saturday.

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