Last weekend, the Varsity Eight made an appearance at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, finishing an impressive 13th out of 37 boats. They’ll take part in both the Head of the Schuylkill and the Princeton Chase this weekend.

Breaking tradition is not common for the ‘Ancient’ Eight. But for only the third time in 72 years, the Ivy League Cross Country Heptagonal Championships will be held at a location other than Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

In 9 hours, 35 minutes and 42 seconds you could take a flight from Philadelphia to Moscow, or you could watch the entire theatrical version of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But you still wouldn’t see Penn women’s soccer concede a goal.

In a frustrating season that has included three Ivy League losses by the slimmest of margins, senior Thomas Brandt is ready for the Penn men’s soccer team’s luck to turn around.

A problem Penn often faces when it travels to play a team with an AstroTurf field is that it needs to practice on AstroTurf, the default playing surface in Division I field hockey. Unfortunately for the Quakers, Franklin Field is composed of Sprinturf.

Facing a dominant Brown team on the road, the Penn football team might be slapped with the ‘underdog’ tag in an Ivy League matchup for the first time since its 2009 title run. But don’t count the Quakers among those who see this pivotal game that way.

On Nov. 19, just before the Quakers kick off their final home game of the season against Cornell, a statue of the man they call “Concrete Charlie” will be unveiled.

A midweek, nonconference road game is hardly an ideal scenario for any team, much less a team competing to defend its Ivy League title. But for Penn women’s soccer, that is no excuse for sub-par effort.

Despite an early 1-0 lead, the Penn field hockey team fell to nonconference powerhouse Rider, 7-1, Wednesday in Lawrenceville, N.J.

When the Quakers took on the Lions two weeks ago, Penn freshman Matt Schwartz was on the field with his twin brother Roy — on the opposing sideline.

Former Penn and current Temple men’s basketball coach Fran Dunphy recently tried a unique way to build his team’s chemistry — he had his players go out on the Schuylkill River to train with the Temple crew team.

Essentially an extended season beyond the normal high-school season, club volleyball has become a necessity for high-school players pursuing a collegiate career.

In its last non-conference match tomorrow against Lehigh, the Penn women’s soccer team has one final chance for a tune up before its final two Ivy League games against Brown and Princeton.

The manner in which the Quakers, so poised at the beginning of the season, fell out of contention is as close to tragic as sports can be.

The first thing teammates and coaches noticed about the new-and-improved Fran Dougherty was his body. Over the offseason, the timid, slight freshman has grown into a sturdy sophomore.

As solid as Penn’s offense looked in Saturday’s fourth quarter against Yale and in all of its late-game comebacks, I’m worried about the defense giving up big plays.

It’s time to stop kidding ourselves and cut our losses. Organizers have tried tinkering with the event for several years with no success.