W. Crew runs into trouble against Yale, Columbia

It wasn't an abnormally strong headwind that prevented the Penn women's crew team from ousting their competition Saturday.

Nor was it due to the choppy waters that added an additional challenge to the race.

The fact that there were only two races instead of four in this past weekend's contest between Columbia, Yale and Penn can be attributed to an unfortunate haphazard collision between the varsity eight boats of the Elis and the Quakers.

"It happened during our warm-up," junior Emily Davis said. "The coxswain's of each boat couldn't clearly see each other and suddenly our oars collided and the bow-seat [front rower] of each boat was hit."

Davis rides in the bow of the varsity boat and was one of the two to be rushed to the emergency room after being hit multiple times with an oar from Yale's boat.

"I remember looking back, then leaning forward to hear the coxswain's instructions and suddenly being hit in the arm by an oar and then hit in the back," Davis said.

"I found out later the other bow-seat had been ejected from the boat by the oar, so I guess in a sense she was lucky to have only suffered one hit."

With the ensuing chaos and hysteria over the accident, the junior varsity boat meanwhile was battling Columbia for first in its own race some 1000 meter down the river.

It wasn't until after crossing the finish line 19 seconds behind Yale in 7:51.5 for second place and seeing an ambulance on site that they knew something was amiss.

"Apparently it all happened during our race when we were coming back. When we found out what had happened we just hoped for the best," JV boat sophomore Stephanie Foelster said. "Emily's condition wasn't too bad, so we were all extremely relieved."

Chrissy Reilly, who was also in the JV boat, echoed Foelster's sentiments.

"It was such an unfortunate thing to happen," Reilly said. "We didn't see the boat, so we were all just wondering. It's horrible to just have to wonder about something like that."

Despite the disappointing weekend for both the Elis and the Quakers' varsity teams, the JV and novice squads managed to produce some impressive results in their respective races.

For a good part of the JV race the Red and Blue was gaining on the Elis, narrowing the gap until the last few hundred meters of the race when the Bulldogs managed to pull away taking first in 7.32.8.

The novice boat also placed second, with an equidistant 12-second margin between the winning Elis and Columbia.

It was the Lions' varsity boat that shouted a warning to the two boats before they collided. Unfortunately their admonition went unheeded.

Moving past the weekend misfortune, the Quakers are looking forward to the rest of their season, trying not to put a damper on the remainder of their races by dwelling on this incident.

"We're just now trying to get back on track and focus on the rest of our season," Reilly said. "We had a few good races and it's important to focus on what we did well to help us."

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