The Daily Pennsylvanian :: Men's Lightweight Rowing

The men's lightweight rowing season is one filled with familiar races and familiar faces: the Navy Day Regatta, the Head of the Charles, the Princeton Chase, the Callow Cup - all year-in, year-out events.

But this season brings a less familiar foe to the water: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Penn is slated to push off against the Engineers on the Schuylkill tomorrow morning.

Though it's been a few years since the Quakers have heard the MIT fight song - "Cosine! Secant! Tangent! Sine! 3.14159!" - but that may actually be helpful for them. With the Eastern Sprints not long around the corner, the Red and Blue could benefit from rowing against some different competition.

That said, the Engineers are more than just sparring partners.

Their lightweights are coming off a strong weekend where they finished third to Columbia and Cornell at the Geiger Cup. Their Varsity 8 was only six seconds behind the Big Red - the 2007 national champions - and three seconds behind Columbia.

The race came down to the wire, as the Engineers' made a late push against the Lions, but eventually fell short. Despite the third place finish, there was a shining bright spot: It was MIT's best performance in the Regatta since 1993.

Unfortunately for the Engineers, their Freshman boat could not replicate the effort of the Varsity 8.

While the latter's strong showing was due to a late push, the former's third-place showing was due to the lack of one: MIT lead the race through the first half, but Columbia was able to turn it on through the second 1000 meters and come from third place to win.

The Engineers are hoping to carry that momentum into this weekend while the Quakers are hoping to reverse their most recent results.

Last weekend, the Quakers fell 21 seconds short of Princeton in the Wood-Hammond Cup. The Tigers clocked a 6:05.8 in the 2000-meter Varsity race while the Quakers finished in 6:26.6. That differential is a far cry from the past few years, when Penn finished only a few seconds back of Princeton.

Indeed, if the number-crunchers from Cambridge, Mass., have their way, they'll enjoy similar success against the Red and Blue.

Comments (11)

[QUOTE id="11d12d05-9043-452b-b5e0-02d9e2033559"]i agree with seriously, whoever this dp reporter is, i wonder if they go to penn. to the reporter, if you dont know anything about rowing, better not write about it. since you have no idea about rowing and probably lightweight rowing, please stop writing.[/QUOTE] Enough. Stop the fucking whining. This article was in no way "rooting" for MIT. Not like you're an easy bunch of people to root for, in any case, judging by the idiocy in the DP comments section that's been going on for a while now. And if you're so desperate for a better rowing writer, maybe you should join the DP yourself. Of course the writers don't know anything about lightweight rowing -- who do you think would care about it other than members of your team? What do you think, that there are people lining up around the block to write about ROWING? I think the DP should take you up on your offer and just "not write about it," at least until you agree to stop bitching about every article that doesn't meet your high standards for knowledge about lightweight rowing.

Heh, yeah, writing that response was a source of humor that makes MY work day less boring as well. So it's a win-win! For the record, I have nothing against your sport. I wasn't saying "You should all shut up, rowing sucks!" But let's be honest here, don't you think that there's a reason that your coverage is so slim and superficial? As a result of your team's making public their bickering on these forums, all that readers know about your team is that you're completely disfunctional and prone to complaining about everything that the DP writes. Every single rowing article turns into a comments war that doesn't exactly endear you to the public. No wonder that the DP seems to give rowing the inexperienced and/or crappy reporters. And as I said, I don't know where exactly you're expecting the DP to find freshman writers who are particularly knowledgable about rowing. Maybe they'd improve with time, but because your team is apparently so unpleasant to deal with, I'd be shocked if anyone wants to write about it for any longer than they have to. And for the record, I'm not sure what you're saying that I was "never any good" at. Nowhere did I imply that I'm a rower -- I'm not, and never have been. I'm just a alumnus who thinks it's a bit unfair that nothing in the DP is ever good enough for these athletes who, as hard-working and dedicated as they may be, all think that their sport is by far the most important and can't believe that the DP doesn't have a whole lineup of reporters who have been studying that sport their entire life.

After the beatings the Penn crew has taken this year, it is surprising that the DP would even waste time covering this event, even with a subpar reporter.

Is this a joke or are you really rooting for MIT? Go Penn and silence all the nay-sayers and these retarded reporters!

i agree with seriously, whoever this dp reporter is, i wonder if they go to penn. to the reporter, if you dont know anything about rowing, better not write about it. since you have no idea about rowing and probably lightweight rowing, please stop writing.

Offers have been made by the crew teams to write about themselves, but the DP sees accurate reporting as a conflict of interest. With this article, the DP has now given more information about the MIT Lightweight's season than the Penn Women's season, interesting...

However "the far boat bay", this reporter was able to educate me on pi AS WELL AS the MIT Lightweight's season. I'd call that a well-rounded article.

Congrats to the DP writers, they must have had some inside info, for they picked the winning crew. Do they have any tips on today's Derby? I guess the LWTs still have some work to do to gain boat speed before the Sprints.

Regardless of the bias this is a well researched college newspaper article. Particularly for someone who does not row. Look forward to reading more of your articles.

[QUOTE id="d5951553-f7f2-423b-ada6-75fb5850eb5f"]Offers have been made by the crew teams to write about themselves, but the DP sees accurate reporting as a conflict of interest. With this article, the DP has now given more information about the MIT Lightweight's season than the Penn Women's season, interesting...[/QUOTE] Um...am I missing something here? The crew teams WRITING ABOUT THEMSELVES? Are you really surprised that this is a conflict of interest?

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