Betraying its graceful appearance, rowing is a sport of force, finesse and teamwork. In the fastest of boats, the eights, the intricacies of the sport require a ninth man who steers—both literally and psychologically—the vehicle as it cruises forward.

During Spring Fling weekend, Penn’s lightweights went down. The Red and Blue’s rowing squad came up short in two separate events on Saturday, finishing second to Princeton in the Wood-Hammond Cup before falling to MIT in another race later in the day. The Wood-Hammond Cup — held early Saturday morning in ideal rowing weather on the Schuylkill River — pitted the Quakers against Princeton and guest participant Georgetown. Although Penn did manage to win the event’s first race at fourth varsity, it was its only victory of the day.

It’s all hands on deck for Penn rowing this weekend.

Being a part of Penn rowing means carrying on a long a rich history. And the current crews are about to contribute another chapter.

Saturday proved to feature the first choppy waters of the season for Penn women’s rowing. The annual Connell Cup race saw Penn lose out to Yale and Columbia in the varsity eight race on the Schuylkill on Saturday. The race, originally scheduled to be held on Columbia’s training grounds in Overpeck Park in New Jersey, had to be moved to the Schuylkill due to excessive ice.

It was a busy weekend to start the spring season for Penn rowing, with boats in the water on both coasts for each of the program’s men’s squads.

The spring has returned and so has the rowing season. This weekend, all three of the Penn crews are heading their separate ways for early meets critical for setting the tone for the season.

With a history stretching back one and a half centuries, competitive rowing constitutes one of Penn’s oldest traditions.

While the freshmen of Penn heavyweight rowing put up a commendable effort, the Rutgers Fall Classic was all about Navy, whose combined heavyweight and lightweight boats edged out the Red and Blue.

In one of their last stops for the fall season, the heavyweight freshmen of Penn rowing will race this Saturday at the Rutgers Fall Classic Regatta.

Despite making some waves at the Princeton Chase, Penn rowing has still identified some room for improvement as it looks forward to winter training.

After a set of mixed results at last week’s Head of the Charles regatta, Penn rowing is hoping to make a splash at this weekend’s Princeton Chase before heading into the long, cold winter.

This Sunday, Penn rowing was represented by a handful of boats at the annual Head of the Charles regatta in Boston, ending up with some mixed finishes.

After a successful Navy Day Regatta last weekend, the Quakers are hoping to continue a promising trend as they head towards the traditional spring season.

Neither rain, fog nor the crews of the Naval Academy could stop Penn rowing from shining.

Penn’s men’s heavyweight, men’s lightweight and women’s crews will join the likes of Navy, La Salle and Rutgers in a series of head races on Saturday.

There are rites of passage that virtually every Penn student passes through during their four years on campus. One of them: being approached by a representative from the rowing team.