Lightweight Crew to face national powers

This weekend, a great opportunity will revisit the Penn lightweight crew program.

For the first time in three years, the lightweight crew team will send its top eight oarsmen to compete in the Head of the Charles Regatta at Cambridge, Mass.

"Without a doubt, it's the biggest single day Regatta in the world," Penn lightweight crew coach Mike Irwin said.

The varsity eight will compete in the lightweight eight sprints on Sunday. Joining the Quakers in the 25 boat field will be teams from all 11 schools in the Eastern Sprints League -- Penn's home league -- including Yale, Princeton and Harvard.

The Quakers will also be rowing against several national teams, including ones from the United States and Germany.

The sheer number and variety of teams competing at the Head of the Charles has heightened its prestige and generated enthusiasm among players and coaches alike. For most oarsmen, this will be their first time competing in the Regatta.

"It's very exciting, and we all hope to put up a strong performance," junior oarsman Bowen Posner said.

Most of all, the Penn lightweight squad is anxious to see how it fares against other league opponents.

"We'll get a real feel for our competition at the Head of the Charles," Irwin said.

Captain Tevis Jacobs agrees with Irwin and feels that this weekend's result might be different from last weekend's sixth and seventh place finishes at the Navy Day Regatta.

Last weekend, the Quakers entered two even-eight speedboats, saving the debut of the varsity eight for the Head of the Charles.

"The Navy Day Regatta did not give us a chance to see how strong our varsity eight really is," Jacobs said. "Now we can get some feedback on how our team stacks up against other teams in our league."

The Quakers will try their best this weekend to oust defending champion Yale, which has won the lightweight eight two years in a row.

Nevertheless, the team realizes that the most important goal for the varsity eight this weekend is additional practice in preparation for the spring season.

"If we come away with a win, great, if not, then at least we learned all we could," Jacobs said.

The last time the men's lightweight squad participated in the Head of the Charles was 1999. The varsity eight finished 12th out of 23 boats.

This year's lightweight and heavyweight eights at the Head of the Charles will also feature a unique form of protest. All Ivy teams in the Eastern Sprints League, including the Quakers, will be wearing black shirts with the number seven crossed out on back.

The teams will be protesting against the seven-week rest period imposed by the league. The rest period prohibits the oarsmen from participating in any competitive or training events for a total of seven weeks, which are distributed during the interim between the fall and spring season.

"The Brown captain came up with the idea, e-mailed all of the players and coaches, and we just signed on," Jacobs said.

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