Due to recent weather conditions that have been plaguing the Penn women's crew team, the Quakers enter this Saturday's Orange Cup with their biggest opponent being the uncontrollable factors.
However, at least the Quakers know one of their opponents will have had similar troubles.
This Saturday they will be traveling to Syracuse, N.Y., only an hour from the heart of the devastating ice storm that has paralyzed parts of upstate New York.
Just last weekend, Syracuse was scheduled to compete on the Onondaga Lake, where tomorrow's competition will be held. The Orange -- one of Penn's competitors this Saturday -- were eventually sent an hour southwest to Cayuga Lake near Cornell because of dangerously poor conditions.
Penn has had similar problems with Mother Nature. Last weekend's race against Brown and Radcliffe in Boston was cancelled due to a combination of rain and snow.
"It's been very tough for us, with races being cancelled and postponed," sophomore Stephanie Foelster said.
"We've been having some seat races [intrateam competitions] so we're beginning to feel very comfortable with our boats and what spots we should be racing."
Foelster, a member of the second varsity boat, feels this confidence will be essential in this weekend's challenge against Syracuse and Northeastern. The Huskies and the Orangemen, are ranked 17th and 20th, respectively, while Penn is currently unranked.
The Huskies have numerous acclamations to their name. Aside from beating their two other competitors of the spring season -- Rutgers and Boston College twice -- Northeastern has also claimed the Orange Cup Title a total of eleven times -- including a five year sweep from 1996 to 2000.
The Quakers also boast a half-decade where they claimed the title -- from 1979-83 -- compiling a total of nine wins in the program's history. Penn has also recorded the fastest time on the Onondaga Lake, finishing the 2000m race in 6:31.6 in 1991.
Syracuse also proved it can be a factor a season ago, beating Penn and the rest of the competition at one of the largest annual races, the Head of the Schuylkill.
"Syracuse and Northeastern are two very talented teams, but we feel we are in a good position right now to go out there and show them some tough competition," Foelster said.
The varsity boat is eager to hit the water, after having missed out on competition for the past two weekends due to the weather in Boston and an unfortunate collision with Yale, which resulted in the cancellation of two races on March 29.
"We're eager to test our strengths no matter where we race against two competitive teams," Penn senior Sarah-Jane Irwin said.
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