Crews set for the Schuylkill

The Penn lightweight and heavyweight crew teams will begin the fall 2003 season on Saturday at the Navy Day Regatta on the Schuylkill River.

Navy and Temple, among others, will visit Boathouse Row for the event, which starts at noon.

"This weekend should be a good opportunity to try some new things out and see where everybody fits in," Penn heavyweight coach Stan Bergman said.

This year's heavyweight team is led by thirteen returning seniors, including captain Brian Beck and commodore Scott Ramsey.

Bergman is looking for these two, along with the other seniors, to improve upon last years performance in the event.

"We train really hard in the fall, so the races are the fun part," Bergman said.

Bergman will send out three speedboats in this weekend's race, including two varsity eights.

The third boat will race for the freshman team, headed by coach Seth Brennan and assistant coach Larry Connell.

The heavyweight team will look to end its two-year streak of finishing second to Dowling College.

The Penn lightweight team, headed up by first-year coach Mike Irwin, is looking to duplicate last year's performance at the Navy Day Regatta.

In the fall of 2001, the lightweight top boat placed first -- ahead of Navy and Rutgers -- while the second boat placed in the top four.

While the expectations may be high, Irwin stresses the importance of using the fall races as practice for the spring season.

"We will use [the Regatta] to test out the field and as a way to get a race under our belt," Irwin said.

The varsity eight will accomplish this by sending out two even eight speedboats for the race.

With the departure of 10 letterwinners at the end of last season, this year's lightweight team is very young, with only three seniors and four juniors returning. Captain Tevis Jacobs and commodore Justin Arena will lead the varsity team.

The varsity will also be merging with a sophomore class that produced five wins for the freshman last season.

The freshman lightweight squad almost went undefeated during last year's spring season. This year, former heavyweight crew veteran John Fife will head the freshman team.

"We are very happy to have [John] with us this year, to help us with recruiting for next year's class," Irwin said.

The freshman lightweight squad will send out two boats for the weekend's race.

This weekend's event marks the start of three consecutive regattas. Next weekend, Penn heads to Boston to compete in the Head of the Charles before returning to home to race in the Head of the Schuylkill on Oct. 26.

After completing their fall season, the Quakers will travel to Tampa, Fla., in January for winter training camp to prepare for their spring season, which starts the last weekend of March.

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