CAMDEN, N.J. -- On Saturday, droves of fans, including Penn's Quaker mascot, traveled to the nearby Cooper River to support the men's crew teams.
They were treated to a nice day but no wins from the varsity crews.
The 15th-ranked heavyweights competed for the Childs Cup, the oldest cup in intercollegiate rowing, contested since 1879. No. 1 Princeton's varsity crew won with a time of 6:07.7. Columbia finished second, while Penn took third with a time of 6:23.7.
"Princeton has a great program," Penn coach Stan Bergman said. "I also tip my hat to Columbia. This is the first time they have beaten us in my 21 years coaching at Penn."
"We're pretty disappointed," commodore Stuart Harty said. "We didn't race like we've been practicing."
The Red and Blue novice eight earned a victory over Princeton and Columbia by finishing in 6:20.1.
"I'm very pleased with the freshmen," Bergman said. "It's the second year in a row that our freshmen have won which is a good move in our program."
On the lightweight side, the Quakers finished third in the Matthews-Leonard Cup behind Harvard and Cornell. Penn's varsity eight posted a time of 6:24.8, just three seconds behind Cornell.
"It was a great early-season race," captain Dave Read said. "We learned a lot from the loss.
"Our first loss gets us revved up for the coming week."
-- Jason Nagata
W. Crew earns second place at Orange Cup
When your opponent sets a cup record, that's usually just too much to overcome.
But the Penn varsity eight came close, falling to Syracuse by 1.2 seconds. The Orange set a cup record with a time 6:31.8. Penn was second, beating out Northeastern and Massachusetts.
However, the Penn delegation did not go home without some hardware.
The varsity four nipped Northeastern and soundly defeated the Orange and the Minutewomen to win the event.
The win in 7:46.8 marked the second time in two weeks that they have won the event -- they also won at the Connell Cup.
-- Zachary Levine
