This season, it seems as though the men's heavy-weight crew team can't help but settle for a second place finish. The squad took second yet again this weekend in the Blackwell Cup against Yale and Columbia after the same finish against Columbia and Princeton the previous weekend.

"The Ivy League golf championship is not for the weak at heart," said Penn men's coach Rob Powelson. For Penn and its Ivy League foes, postseason play depends solely on who wins the Ivy League championship tournament, which will be held tomorrow and Sunday in Galloway, N.

When the Tigers roll into Meiklejohn Stadium this weekend, they'll be the underdogs at two games back in the division.

All that Penn sophomore J.J. Lian could say about Saturday's game was "that third quarter really killed us." It didn't matter that for a little over 49 minutes on the field, No. 8 Maryland was forced to play an unexpected game of catch-up against the Quakers.

Junior Christina Khosravi is doing it for the seniors. The whole Penn softball team is. This weekend, the Quakers (21-15, 12-4 Ivy) travel to Princeton, N.J. to play the Tigers (18-25, 8-4) in two doubleheader matches that could clinch the Ivy League South Division title for the Quakers and give them a berth to the League Championships.

The ice water felt good. Both coaches and Senior co-captain Ashley Lostritto got the celebratory bath on Saturday as Penn beat Columbia 7-0 to cap a perfect Ivy League season. As the music glared and his players danced, a wet Coach Michael Dowd described the mood.

The Ivy League crown is Penn's to lose. Just one year removed from sharing the Ivy tennis title with Brown, No. 69 Penn heads into the homestretch in complete control of its destiny: two wins over Cornell and Columbia, and the Quakers win the title outright for the first time in 36 years.

A year ago, this team may not have won these two games. But this season's baseball team is different. Andy Console came on for a tiring Jim Birmingham and struck out Adrian Turnham to snuff out a Princeton comeback, and Penn moved ever closer to its first Lou Gehrig Division title since 1997, sweeping the Tigers 11-1 and 6-4 Saturday afternoon.

It took him eight years to complete, but New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden's new book is starting to make some noise. With a title like Forty Million Dollar Slaves, the buzz would have been impossible to avoid. But at yesterday's "Race and Sports" lecture, sponsored by Penn's Center for Africana Studies, Rhoden proved his book is more than a catchy title.

With 25 days to go until graduation, it's time for you to do that one thing that you've always wanted to do, yet have never gotten the chance. For some of you, maybe it's having sex under the button, or it's a five-course meal at Le Bec-Fin. For me, it's writing a column in poetry.

If only every Penn-Princeton game went this way. Playing against its archrival, the women's lacrosse team won at least a share of its first Ivy League Championship since 1982, beating the No. 15 Tigers 14-10 during Senior Night at Franklin Field. The Quakers can win the league outright with a victory over Brown on Saturday.

How Penn landed a heralded tennis recruit against all odds - and how one man's questionable dealings helped do it

A day after an extra-inning thriller, Penn made things a little easier yesterday in Lawrenceville, N.J. The Quakers scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back, thrashing Rider 13-5. Junior Kyle Armeny led the offensive charge for Penn (17-14), with his team-leading seventh home run, a solo shot in the third, as well as an RBI groundout in the first.

Report: Hoyas asst. offered Princeton job Princeton has offered its head basketball coaching position to Georgetown assistant coach Sydney Johnson, Princeton's student newspaper reported yesterday. According to an online report by The Daily Princetonian, Johnson, a 1997 Tigers alumnus who has coached professionally for only three years, has been offered the job but has yet to officially accept it.

Ladies and gentlemen, they're out of the red. For the first time in 23 years, the Penn softball team has guaranteed itself an overall winning record. Such an occasion should warrant a stylish win, and the Quakers did not disappoint. Penn swept Cornell in a doubleheader yesterday at Warren Field, beating the Big Red 7-1 and 5-4 with equally solid pitching and batting performances.

Five seconds into the second half of the biggest lacrosse game of her life, Penn sophomore Becca Edwards was flat on her back. Playing against No. 15 Princeton with the Ivy League title on the line, Edwards's stick got caught with an opponent's while she tried to get the opening draw control of the second half.

Penn's spring sports teams are in an unfamiliar position for this time of year. They are in contention for Ivy League titles. The women's lacrosse, tennis and softball teams, along with the men's tennis and baseball teams, all have legitimate shots at titles.