W. Crew finishes second in N.J.

Leaving home for the first time is always tough. But the Penn women's crew team was not stifled by new waters last weekend. The Quakers finished second out of three teams for the third meet in a row on the Raritan River in New Brunswick, N.J. Early Saturday morning, the Quakers (5-3, 2-1 Ivy League) came up short against Rutgers (4-3), but were able to edge out Ancient Eight rival Cornell (1-7, 0-3). In the varsity eight race, the Scarlet Knights came in first at 6:35.16, while Penn was clocked at 6:45.12 and the Big Red at 6:48.01. The results of the race -- which was largely unaffected by wind or rough waters -- were very similar to those of a Penn-hosted meet a week ago. In that race for the Orange Challenge Cup on the Schuylkill River, No. 7 Syracuse won with a time of 6:26.3, several lengths ahead of the second and third place teams. The Quakers finished in a time of 6:34.9, while Northeastern took third in 6:35.9. The race on the Raritan was also similar to the April 14 meet in that the results were largely expected. Rutgers' record is very misleading, as its losses have largely been to tougher teams in the crew circuit. Cornell, on the other hand, has been struggling all season, pulling out its only win against George Washington in its season opener. The Big Red did show depth this weekend, however, as its boats won four of the six races. Most notably, Cornell took both novice eight races by significant margins, indicating that it may give perennial Ivy League favorites Brown and Princeton a little competition in future years. This possibility is furthered by the fact that both of Cornell's novice eight boats finished ahead of its second varsity eight boat. Penn's lone win of the day came in the varsity four "A" race, and it came in at a time of 7:38.02. The Quakers used a combination of four novice members to pull out the win. Cornell -- using its spring four team -- finished four seconds behind, and Rutgers' non-sprint boat brought up the rear at 7:49.58. After three consecutive second- place finishes, the Quakers are hoping that in this coming weekend they will be able to duplicate their season-opening, first-place finish in which they defeated Navy and Brown. Penn's meet this weekend was originally scheduled to take place on the Schuylkill. Instead, the Quakers will return to the Garden State to face Dartmouth and Princeton in the Award Plaque race. The varsity boats will compete on the FISA World Cup course in Mercer, N.J., while the lower boats race on Lake Carnegie. This will be Penn's final meet in preparation for the 27th annual Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges Championship Regatta, to be held on May 13.

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