and Felicia Yang With four members returning from last year's varsity eight, the Penn men's heavyweight crew team is building upon a strong foundation as it prepares for the start of its fall season. Led by seniors Greg Jenemann, the captain, Nick Tripician, the team's commodore, and Mark Redding, who is entering his third year as the first boat coxswain, the Quakers are looking to improve on their third-place finish at the Eastern Sprints and sixth-place showing at the 1999 IRA Championships. Senior Tim Thompson rounds out the group of returnees. "We expect strong senior leadership," said coach Stan Bergman, director of both the men's and women's rowing programs at Penn. "I think we have a strong group of seniors with Greg and Nick at the top of them." Bergman is also looking to the underclassmen to contribute. "A lot of kids in this sport gain respect for strong work ethic," said Bergman, explaining that leaders can also emerge from the ranks of the sophomores and juniors as well. Penn is looking to juniors Bill Ennis, Doug Seig, Keith Sutter and Brian Walsh to provide leadership. The heavyweight fall season opens this weekend with Saturday's Navy Day Regatta on the Schuylkill River. This will be the first of three races this fall. The team will also compete in the Head of the Charles in Boston on October 24. The Head of the Schuylkill on October 30 is the team's final fall race. Fall races are three-mile head pieces, as opposed to the 2,000-meter sprints in the spring season, when the team works towards the Eastern Sprints and IRA Championships. "The fall season is 'spring training' for us," Bergman said. "We are trying to match people up and build a strong base for spring." During this period, the team concentrates on improving technique, skill and conditioning. During the fall, the team often practices in smaller boats and in pairs to experiment with different lineups. "We expect to compete hard," Jenemann said. "It takes three boats to make one fast crew." Both Bergman and Jenemann emphasized the importance of unity and teamwork in the fall. "The third boat pushes the JV, who pushes the first boat," Jenemann said. "Everyone counts, there are no stars on the crew team." According to Bergman, "the team sets their own goals." While Eastern Sprints and the IRAs, which are the national championships for collegiate rowing, may seem a distant seven months away, Penn's entire fall season is dedicated with one goal in mind -- winning both of those races. "These are very high and difficult goals to reach," Bergman said. The Ivy League has traditionally been at the top of collegiate rowing, turning out a majority of the nation's top crews over the last 20 years. Penn has won four Eastern Sprints titles since 1986 -- the most recent of which came in '98 -- and two IRA titles since '89, the last of which Penn won in 1992.
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