The Penn heavyweight crew team is out to rediscover its winning touch after a disappointing second-place finish behind Ivy League rival Princeton last weekend at the Childs Cup.
Facing Ivy opponents Columbia and Yale in this weekend's Blackwell Cup in Derby, Conn., should make it all that much easier.
Penn has won the annual Cup event for three straight years and looks poised to add a fourth trophy.
"We've beaten these teams the last three years pretty handily," said Penn senior Justin Clemow, a member of the varsity boat. "We are going into this weekend expecting to win.
"And we should."
Last weekend, the Quakers had the chance to test themselves against Columbia in the Childs Cup. The Lions were no match for them, however, as the Quakers beat them by a whopping 32 seconds to the finish line.
Penn is not expecting to be threatened by Columbia this weekend either.
"No one is really concerned about Columbia," Clemow said. "Not to take anything away from Columbia, but we try to fight more for the Harvard's and Princeton's."
The Quakers -- while not exactly concerned about facing Yale -- still view the Elis as somewhat of a challenge.
In its first dual meet of the season last weekend, Yale gave quite a scare to highly regarded Dartmouth. The Elis beat the Big Green in the second varsity race and came within six seconds of posting a major upset in the varsity competition.
"Yale had a pretty close race with Dartmouth and the times posted were really fast," Clemow said.
Additionally, Yale also appears to have an advantage over the Quakers in that the teams will be racing on the Elis' home river.
But Penn has been quick to discount this edge as nothing more than pre-race hype.
"I don't think the home course will be too much of an advantage," Clemow said. "Traditionally, we are just a little bit better than them.
"And I expect us to be again this year."
The only other stumbling block that the Quakers may face is the potential for seasonably poor river conditions this weekend. Being that there has been a recent run of warm weather, there is the potential for the water to be low and the times in the race to be a bit on the slow side.
Still, much like other advantages that they have dismissed, the Quakers really aren't paying any attention to external factors.
"The race has the potential to be on the longer side, but that affects everyone equally," Clemow said. "Those are conditions that you can't really control, so you don't spend time worrying about them."
With the Quakers the undisputed favorite and their eyes squarely set on bringing home another crown, Penn has set itself up for the potential to fail miserably if it cannot rise to the task.
"It would be quite a disappointment," Clemow said, "if we didn't win."
