The men's crew team travelled to Cornell over Memorial Day weekend to participate in the annual meet against the Big Red, seeking its 25th Madeira Cup in the competition's 41-year history.
Cornell had won the competition the last four years, including last year when they eked out Penn's skull on the Schuylkill.
However, the men's varsity 8 could not tame the Big Red squad on the calm Cayuga either. They lost the dual meet by 2.7 seconds, finishing the 2000-meter race in 5:55.9.
Despite losing the cup, Penn won the majority of the races. Both the varsity 4 and freshman 8 won their races. The varsity 4 cruised by Cornell in 6:32.5 for a 2.2 second lead. The freshman 8 demolished the Big Red, winning by 12.2 seconds at a time of 5:58.4.
The Quakers will head to the Cooper River in Camden, N.J. for the annual IRA Regatta, the oldest collegiate rowing championships in the United States. The regatta will be Penn's last competition of the year and the last meet for longtime coach Stan Bergman. It will mark the end of a 22-year tenure at the helm of the men's crew program.
But while he will not be going out on top, he will leave having left a very deep impression on the tradition of Penn rowing.
Penn will seek to improve on its less-than-spectacular performance at the IRA Regatta last year. The varsity 8 finished 17th while the second varsity finished 11th and the freshman 8 ended 4th.
They have not made the Grand Final in the varsity 8 since 1999 when they finished sixth. Penn has not won the IRA Championships since 1992. However, the Quakers do own nine championships in 111-year history of the event.
Penn's chances look rather bleak at this point. Besides losing to Cornell, they have also lost to Northeastern, Harvard, Navy, Yale, and Princeton this year. Regardless of these earlier finishes, though, the team will likely look throughout the team for potential boosters. A pair of wins by the freshman 8 and third varsity 4 at the EARC sprints should give some hope for IRA Regatta.
