The Penn women's crew team has reasons to be optimistic after Saturday's Connell Cup against Yale and Columbia in Derby, Conn.
"Beginning the racing season is always challenging, but we had a good start," senior captain Catherine Hunt said.
The Quakers won the varsity four with a time of 8:05.7. Two of Yale's boats followed with second and third places, while Columbia took fourth.
"Today, the team learned that they are very fit," Penn coach Barb Kirch Grudt said. "However, we still can improve some."
Penn's varsity eight took third, with a time of 6:58.5. Yale won the event with a 6:41.1 finish. The Quakers' second varsity eight finished in second place behind Yale with a time of 7:03.7.
Hunt attributed the varsity eight's performance to the difficult conditions on the course.
"There is a slight turn," Hunt said. "The time of the race made it tricky because the buoys are hard to see when the sun is glaring."
As always, the crew team will be training hard in preparation for a trip to Boston against Northeastern and Syracuse on April 9.
"We will have a really hard week of training," Grudt said. "We'll see if we can move personnel around to get winning combinations. I am confident in our strength, which is why we can move personnel around."
And the captain recognizes that preparing for the trip to Boston will be difficult, but may have a big reward at the end.
"We have a lot of work cut out for us," Hunt said. "This weekend we found parts of what we're looking for in terms of speed. I'm expecting that it's all going to come together and we'll find even more speed. I'm really excited for the rest of the season."
