M. Crew launches season on Schuylkill

The Penn men's heavyweight and lightweight crew teams will kick off their fall seasons this Saturday at the Navy Day Regatta on the Schuylkill River.

Both Navy and Rutgers will visit Boathouse Row for the event, which starts at noon.

"We are looking to compete at a real high level, and obviously we'd like to win," Penn heavyweight coach Stan Bergman said.

This year's heavyweight team is led by its nine seniors, including captain Mike Parker, commodore Paul Falcigno and Justin Clemow, who all began rowing on the varsity team in their sophomore year.

Bergman is looking to those three, along with the other seniors, for leadership and motivation throughout the year.

Next weekend the Quakers will travel to Boston to compete in the Head of the Charles before returning home to Philadelphia to race in the Head of the Schuylkill on Oct. 27 and the Frostbite Regatta on Nov. 10.

After completing their fall season, the Quakers will travel to Tampa, Fla., for their winter training camp to prepare for the spring season, which starts the first weekend of April.

"We use the fall season to basically get in really good shape," Bergman said, adding that the fall campaign gives the coaches an opportunity to evaluate the talent and prepare for the upcoming spring season.

Last year, the Quakers were 6-2 in spring cup races and came in fifth out of 15 teams at the Eastern Sprints. Penn ended its season with a ninth-place finish at the IRA Championships.

The freshman heavyweight team is coached by Larry Connell and includes a strong recruiting class.

The Penn lightweight team, meanwhile, is looking to improve upon last year's winless season.

"We are hoping to challenge with the top teams in the league," Penn lightweight coach Bruce Konopka said. "We're pretty anxious to start racing. Things are going quite well now."

And going into this weekend's season-opening race, the Penn rowers are feeling very confident.

"We're a lot further along than we were last year," senior commodore Matt Courtin said. "We have a better attitude and we're ready to win," . "We think we're going to beat [Navy and Rutgers]."

Courtin, along with senior captain Brian Conley, help to provide a "good leadership setting," according to Konopka.

This fall the lightweight team will join the heavyweights in all of Penn's races. Three of those races will be held on the Schuylkill, which may provide a home-river advantage for the Quakers.

"We have been rowing three-mile pieces in practice and it helps the coxswains to be at home," Konopka said.

Like the heavyweight team, the Quakers lightweights will use the fall season to learn to work together and prepare to sprint in the spring.

Penn's freshman lightweight team is looking strong as well. First-year coach Steve Perry is very enthusiastic about the upcoming season.

"I spent the last two years at Rutgers," Perry said, "and this year's team is faster than any team I coached there."

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