Women's Crew takes ninth at Princeton

Last weekend, the Penn women's crew team showed that its struggles in Boston were no more than an aberration.

Coming off a mediocre performance at the Head of the Charles just the week before, the Quakers varsity eight more than made up for it by placing ninth out of 30 in the competitive Princeton Chase.

Penn was pleased with its time in the of 15:48, which was just 55 seconds off of Princeton's first place time of 14:53.

They also finished within 10 seconds of Radcliffe, Cornell, Boston University, Virginia and Princeton's second Varsity boat.

"I'm pleased with the changes that they made from one week to the next," Penn coach Barb Kirch said. "They knew they were capable of a better performance, and they concentrated on achieving that every stroke of the race."

The Princeton Chase is a three-mile, invitational head-race hosted by Princeton University. Each year a host of talented collegiate crews, including most of the Quakers league rivals, are invited to compete.

The Quakers' placing is a improvement on last week's performance at the Head of the Charles where the Quakers finished far behind the competition.

At the Head of the Charles, the Quakers ended a full 44 seconds after Radcliffe's crew, while at the Princeton Chase the Quakers decreased the margin to four seconds.

"We made strides against all of our league competitors," Kirch said. "We just have to keep doing more of the same."

The Quakers also sent a boat to compete in the Women's Four. They were doing well until the end of the race when Yale's crew tried to edge the Quakers out of the competition -- literally.

The Elis attempted to pass them in the final seconds of the race, colliding with the Red and Blue and causing noticeable damage to the Quakers' boat. Before Yale's untimely interference the Quakers were on their way to a top-four finish.

Even so, Kirch was pleased with her crew's overall performance.

"They're doing a good job," Kirch said. Things "are really coming together. It's going to take us until the spring to put everything together, but I'm not concerned at all," Kirch said. "It's very simple to go fast, so we're not going to make it complicated."

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