The Penn rowing teams ended their fall seasons by giving the rookies some experience.
All three of the Quakers rowing squads were in action Sunday afternoon in the Belly of the Carnegie at Princeton, N.J., a race that is different from most because only freshmen compete. Only the eights raced and two boats from each team competed. The combined score of the two boats determined each team's standing.
The men's heavyweight team finished in 13th and 16th place with times of 14:27.16 and 14:42.21, respectively. The best men's lightweight boat finished in 14th place with a time of 14:19.92, while the second boat finished 17th with a time of 14:53.05.
As for the women, their squad was one of only two teams which raced three boats, which finished 10th, 11th and 21st, respectively.
Ten teams had two boats in each class and of those 10, the Quakers came in second overall with a composite time (the times from the team's top two heavyweight, two lightweight and two women's boats added together) of 1:31:11.04, less than three seconds behind Cornell who had a time of 1:28:40.93.
The main focus of this race was to develop the freshman rowers, as this was the first race in which most of them competed this fall. The fall season as a whole is designed to get the athletes ready for the spring, when the races are considered to be more significant.
Women's head coach Mike Lane was excited about his team's performance Sunday. "I am very happy with the finish. All fall, we have continued to make steps in the right direction, and this is one more," Lane said.
After seeing it in action for the first time, Lane is optimistic about his freshman class.
"In my fourth year with the program, the freshman class is the most well-rounded group I have seen," he said. "With the combination of the walk-ons and the recruits, this could by far be the best freshman group."
It is now up to the athletes themselves to get better and improve for the spring season. Lane knows that there is still more work to be done.
"Overall, I am happy with the results, but I always think there is room to improve until we come in first," he said.
