The Penn women's crew team went into Saturday's race carrying a nearly two-year home winning streak. Yale didn't take notice. The Elis (1-0) dominated the Schuylkill River, winning the Connell Cup -- a three-team race between Yale, Columbia and Penn -- with 20 team points. The Quakers' 18-point total was good enough to give them a second place finish,while Columbia brought up the rear with 13 points. Yale's varsity eight crossed the finish line first with a time of five minutes and 55.5 seconds -- more than eight seconds ahead of the Quakers and a full 10 seconds ahead of the Lions. Although losing is always disappointing, the Red and Blue (1-1) feel that their performance was by no means for naught. "I think we rowed the best race we could," Penn senior co-captain Rachel Pringle said. "We learned a lot from the race that we can take into the rest of the season." The Quakers may have raced to their current potential in the last competition, but they have yet to arrive at mid-season form. "We did everything we could on Saturday to make our boats go as fast as they could," Penn senior Ursula Ahrens said. "But we all know that we have a good month left in our season. So we're looking to improve on the slight technical things, the slight rhythm things and hopefully get a little more speed out of it." Saturday's race also showed some good signs for the future of the Penn rowing program. Penn's first novice eight finished in 6:19.4 to defeat Columbia, while the Quakers varsity "B" four also defeated the Lions by posting a time of 7:10. The Quakers will next race on April 14 against Northeastern (0-2) and Syracuse (2-0) on the Schuylkill River.
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