New lineups and new faces provide optimism for the Penn women's crew team, despite Sunday's mediocre overall finish at the Princeton Chase.
The Penn varsity eight boat finished 13th in 16:28.45, while the winning time of 15:16.59 belonged to Penn rival, Princeton. The Quakers "B" finished 18th in 16:14.85, while the "C" boat took 28th overall in 17:12.82.
"We don't have the horsepower a lot of the teams we compete against do," Penn coach Barb Kirch Grudt said.
In addition to a disparity in strength, the Quakers' new lineups, coupled with newly integrated rowers, put them at a disadvantage this weekend.
"Overall it definitely wasn't a disappointment. We went out there with lineups we'd never raced before," senior captain Mary Murphy said. "Given the lineups and the young team, I think we did really well."
As indicated by the Princeton Chase, Penn is in the middle of the pack of competitive teams, though the Quakers hope to be among the top of the competitive schools by the conclusion of the spring season. And with only one race remaining in the fall season, the Quakers eagerly await the upcoming spring season.
"The spring results are the ones that matter," Grudt said.
The team's expectations are not fueled by blind optimism.
"We're a really young team, so we'll have a bigger learning curve through the winter and the spring. So we should get a lot stronger," junior Megan Keane said. "By the time the spring comes around it will be a lot different."
"The fall was a learning and growing process, but by the time spring rolls around we're very optimistic," Murphy said.
Though the fall season in crew primarily serves as an indicator of a team's relative standing, it seems that it may not be a very pertinent indicator for this youthful squad. Or at least the Quakers hope it's not.
