Hwt. Crew: Quakers battle wind to finish twelfth at EARCs

This time, the heartbreak did not come from finishing second for the Penn heavyweight crew team.

Fighting a fierce headwind and some of the top crew teams in the nation at last weekend's Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints in Worcester, Mass., the No. 16 Red and Blue came in fourth in their heat and last in the Petite Final, placing them 12th overall at one of collegiate rowing's most prestigious regattas.

The weekend went "disappointingly," senior Hobey Stuart said. "We didn't handle the racing well, we didn't handle the situation."

Harvard, ranked second in the latest USRowing.com poll, won the Grand Final with a time of 6:04.1, taking the championship for the 22nd time and ending a drought stretching back to 1990. No. 3 Wisconsin came in second in 6:08.84, and No. 4 Dartmouth took third with a time of 6.10.61, followed by No. 6 Navy, No. 7 Brown and No. 9 Rutgers.

The Petite Final went to No. 10 Northeastern with a time of 6:20.02, followed by No. 13 Boston University, No. 11 Cornell, No. 10 Princeton and No. 17 Yale. The Quakers finished with a time of 6:34.11.

"We did not execute," Stuart said.

The Quakers also sent their freshman to Lake Quinsigamond.

The freshman heavyweight eight came in third in its heat with a time of 6:12.41, behind Brown and Wisconsin, and placed second to Northeastern in the Petite Final with a time of 6.31.63. Princeton beat Harvard by over six seconds to take the Grand Final.

The second varsity eight came in fourth in its heat at 6:07.99, only 0.23 behind Yale, but came in fifth in the Petite Final at 6:56.91, this time finishing nearly four seconds behind the fourth-palce Elis.

"We thought that our boat picked up speed and had a really good qualifying race, and our spirits were up," said junior Greg Cobb, who was in the second varsity boat. "We came into the second race, and we fell apart in the conditions."

Penn's next race is on May 17, when the Quakers race against Northeastern for the Burk Cup in Boston.

After returning from Boston, the Quakers will wrap up their cup racing season against Cornell for the Madeira Cup on May 24 on the Schuylkill.

After the cup racing season is complete, Penn will race at the IRA Championships on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.

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