Heavyweight Crew rows past Huskies

After a disappointing performance at Eastern Sprints on May 13, the Penn men's heavyweight crew team returned to the Bay State looking for a little bit of redemption.

The Quakers (4-3) got just that last Saturday, as they rowed past Northeastern (2-3) on the Charles River in Boston.

Penn's varsity eight, crossing the line with its third fastest time of the season at 6:01.6, just managed to edge out the Huskies by 0.5 seconds.

"We felt like we hadn't raced to our potential [at Easterns], and we could really make a strong statement going into the IRAs," Penn senior captain Keith Sutter said.

With the win, the Quakers took the Burk Cup back to Philadelphia, where it has been for four of the last five years.

The victory was even sweeter for the Quakers because Northeastern had finished two spots and more than 4.5 seconds ahead of Penn just one week earlier on Lake Quinsigamond in Worchester, Mass.

"They were ranked ahead of us, and they had beaten us a week earlier, so to come back and beat them pretty soundly was a good feeling," Sutter said.

Motivated by a desire to avenge their loss from a weekend ago, Penn jumped out to the early lead, taking a length in the first 300 meters.

"We decided that we were just going to go after it from the very first stroke, and that's what we did, taking a big lead right away," Sutter said.

And the Quakers were glad that they did, as the Huskies slowly cut into the margin throughout the entire second 1000 meters.

"We went from a little open water, which is about a four second lead, to our end with just over a half second," Sutter said. "They came back into us the last part of the race, but we hung on."

The victory also avenges Penn's loss on its home waters to Northeastern last season.

And while Penn's varsity eight was successful, its other three boats struggled to compete with the Huskies.

Northeastern took the second varsity eight race, coming in at 6:14.0 with Penn following seven seconds after.

Penn's rival up north also took the first freshman and freshman fours races by eight and 11 seconds, respectively.

The Quakers have just one race remaining before the IRA Championship Regatta, rowing's equivalent of the national championship.

That last remaining race will take place on the Schuylkill River this Saturday, when Penn hosts Cornell in the Madeira Cup Race.

The Quakers have carried the cup home for six straight years, but nonetheless are not taking the Big Red lightly.

"Cornell is no joke. They're a great crew," Sutter said. "We beat them by three tenths of a second at Sprints to get into the final. If there's a crew in [the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges] that Cornell hates right now, it's us.

"They're coming out gunning."

With that in mind, the Quakers will be adopting a racing strategy similar to the one implemented last Saturday against Northeastern.

And as the season is slowly drawing to a close, Penn is trying not to change too much in preparation for IRAs.

"For the last couple of weeks, we're not killing it right now," Sutter said. "We're trying to fine tune and maintain some speed, and see if we can eke out a couple of more seconds.

"We plan on being a real strong competitor for the national championship at the IRAs."

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