With only five seniors on a roster of 20, the Penn lightweight crew team used all of its resources this weekend at the Princeton Chase on Sunday. The Quakers also tested their freshmen on Saturday at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta.
"The point of these races is to gauge the team compared to other teams in the league," Penn captain Justin Arena said. "Last year, we had some crashes that didn't allow us to do that. This year, we had two clean races, and that helps us going into the winter."
The varsity team placed sixth and the junior varsity 20th out of 30 entries in the lightweight eight event on Sunday, with the Quakers' top boat crossing the finish line in 14:02.89, 20 seconds behind winner and Ivy League rival, Princeton.
In the lightweight four event, the Penn "A" boat finished seventh in 16:32.89, with the "B" boat finishing ninth in a time of 16:35.91. The "C" boat came in 25th in 17:08.75.
"It was a good showing," he said. "We're improving on last year."
The Quakers are looking for contributions from every member of the team. The fact that Arena is out hurts Penn's leadership, but Arena believes that the key to success lies not so much in experience but momentum.
Last year, the Quakers had only two seniors on the roster as well as a first-year head coach in Mike Irwin, which led to questions about the leadership on the team. But Arena doesn't seem too concerned about that.
"I'm still not completely healed, and I'm just going to every practice and trying to get better," Arena said. "But these guys are fine without me. They know what they're doing."
The freshman team won the men's lightweight championship on Saturday on the Schuylkill River, finishing in 12:23.17.
"The freshmen are doing well," Arena said. "They're transitioning well from rowing in high school to rowing in college, and they seem to have good team unity."
Arena noted that the success of the freshmen helps the varsity and vice versa, since the teams train together during the winter. By feeding off each other's success, they can push each other to get better.
Arena did, however, regard the team's fall success with a somewhat guarded optimism.
"It's important for us to realize that good results in the fall don't necessarily translate into good results in the spring," Arena said. "We have to make sure we work harder than other teams during the winter."
