The Penn men's heavyweight crew team has quite a history with Northeastern.
Last year alone, the two teams faced each other four times, with each team winning twice. While Penn was victorious on the Huskies' home river and in the opening heat of the IRAs, the Quakers arguably were dealt the more critical losses at the EARC Sprints and the semifinals of the IRAs.
This week, the No. 11 ranked Penn team will get its long-awaited first crack of the 2002 season at the Huskies.
"There's no love lost between these two teams," Penn senior Justin Clemow said. "In both crews there are numbers of guys in each boat who were in the boat last year and everyone remembers what happened."
"The flames don't die so quickly," he added.
Penn comes into its grudge match with the No. 4 ranked Northeastern crew inspired after its impressive showing at the Content Cup last weekend.
The Quakers were invited to participate in the annual Cup between No. 6 Brown and No. 7 Princeton, and made the most of their opportunity taking second in the race on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J.
"It's nice to beat Brown, because we never have," Clemow said. "Both of them were ranked ahead of us and the fact that we beat Brown helps us out in the rankings" and "it is also a good shot of self-confidence."
This "shot of self-confidence" will certainly come in handy this weekend.
"The last three races with Northeastern have been decided by less than half a second," Clemow said. "We really want this one."
