The Penn women's crew team had a chance to perform at a top level over the weekend with the prestigious Head of Charles standing as Penn's weekend event.
But the end result -- a 26th place finish out of 46 teams in the Championship Eight, as well as a 29th out of 33 teams finish in the Championships Four -- left the Quakers far short of expectations.
"The race could have gone either way," Penn women's crew coach Barb Kirch said. "Unfortunately, it didn't go as well as [we] practiced."
On Sunday, the Quakers traveled to Boston to compete in the renowned Head of the Charles Regatta. They raced against such powerhouse crews as the U.S. and Canadian national teams, as well as various collegiate crews including Princeton, Yale and Stanford, who all placed in the top five.
Faced with such stiff competition, the Quakers did not perform as well as they expected.
Penn's 26th place in the Championship Eight came in a time of 17:45.44, while its 29th place in the Championship Four was logged at 20:35.24. In both races the Quakers fell behind Ivy rivals Cornell, Princeton and Yale.
"They under-performed," Kirch said, "[The race] was good, but not where we'd like to be."
Coxswain Jessie Reich echoed Kirch's sentiment.
"We didn't do as well as we would have liked to," Reich said, "but it's not discouraging because I know we have the strength and ability on our team to win in the future."
Kirch was particularly pleased with the performances of her coxswains, Reich and Dierdre Kelleher.
"It was a pretty clean race," Kirch said, "The coxswains did a great job of staying out of trouble."
Amidst a crowd of hundreds of boats all vying for the same course, the coxswains ability to avoid troubling situations is no small feat.
As the largest single day regatta in the world, the Head of the Charles was host to more than 1,000 boats, each with a coxswain determined to steer his or her crew down the fastest course.
"There were lots of sharp 180 degree turns, which we handled well" Reich said. "We did an awesome job of steering the course."
Last year, the Quakers met with some difficulty when they collided with Cornell's boat and suffered a 60-second penalty.
With the Head of Charles complete, the Quakers are now looking ahead to the spring season, and working to race well against the teams that they will face on their way to the NCAAs.
The Quakers are using this fall season to gain strength and experience.
"More than half of our team are sophomores," Kirch said. "So anytime we go to the starting line we're gaining experience."
