Penn men's rowing holds its own versus stiff competition

Over the weekend, Penn lightweight and heavyweight rowing participated in a pair of historic competitions — but the results were less than memorable.

In the 106th Childs Cup race against Princeton and Columbia last Saturday, the No. 13 Quakers easily fought off the No. 16 Lions, but were unable to make significant ground against the No. 3 Tigers.

At Overpeck Park, N.J., the Red and Blue finished second in all three races. In the Varsity 8, a wide 10.6-second gap prevented the Quakers from wrestling the Childs Cup away from the Tigers, who have now retained the trophy for seven straight years.

While there was little surprise at the commanding lead by the undefeated Princeton crew, the Red and Blue provided stiff competition for the Tigers in the Second Varsity 8, which was decided by a relatively narrow 3.2-second margin.

Interestingly enough, Penn’s second boat recorded a slightly better time than its first, finishing the course in 6:06.5 compared to the varsity boat’s 6:06.9. While neither boats were able to beat their Princeton opponents, it does speak to the team’s depth and potential for altered boating arrangements.

In all of the races, Columbia lagged far behind, the greatest of which came in the third race as it finished 16.5 seconds after the Quakers and over 30 seconds after the Tigers.

While the Penn-Princeton rivalry is always a sight to see, the best action of the weekend could be found up north in the lightweight Varsity 8’s clash with Cornell and Harvard. Coming into the meet, there was little question that it would be one of the Red and Blue’s most difficult of the Spring season.

As the two-time defending national champion and second-ranked team in the nation, the Big Red were the clear favorites even when pitted against the Red and Blue and No. 5 Crimson.

In the race between the first boats, those differences initially became clear as Cornell darted away to an early lead on their home course, but gains from Harvard and Penn put pressure on the leaders.

“[Cornell] got off to a lead but didn’t necessarily continue to extend that, so it sort of felt like they were within reach,” coach Colin Farrell said.

After over five minutes of grueling competition, the Crimson and Red and Blue stood neck and neck with the Big Red not too far ahead, but as the boats entered the final stretch, the Quakers fell short.

“I think Harvard was just able to sprint a little better than us, a little sooner than us,” Farrell said. “Right at the end of the race when we needed to go a little bit faster I think Harvard just executed a little better.”

“The disappointing part for us in that race was that we ended up third,” he continued. “The positive that came out of it was that we felt like ran with those guys, and we still feel like we have room to improve.”

Moving forward, Farrell stresses that he and the team will continue to work hard but also look at other sources for improvement.

“We are always doing that stuff in terms of evaluating combinations and specific players,” Farrell said. “We don’t just look to say, ‘We just have to row better or we just have to race better.’”

“We just have to find the right combination. So that certainly is something that has been going on to this point and will definitely continue. We think we can find some more speed for sure.”

With the season having just begun for both the lightweights and heavyweights, some tinkering with seating arrangements seems inevitable, but as any crew team will tell you, there are only so many opportunities to get it right.

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