The men's lightweight rowing season is one filled with familiar races and familiar faces: the Navy Day Regatta, the Head of the Charles, the Princeton Chase, the Callow Cup - all year-in, year-out events.
But this season brings a less familiar foe to the water: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Penn is slated to push off against the Engineers on the Schuylkill tomorrow morning.
Though it's been a few years since the Quakers have heard the MIT fight song - "Cosine! Secant! Tangent! Sine! 3.14159!" - but that may actually be helpful for them. With the Eastern Sprints not long around the corner, the Red and Blue could benefit from rowing against some different competition.
That said, the Engineers are more than just sparring partners.
Their lightweights are coming off a strong weekend where they finished third to Columbia and Cornell at the Geiger Cup. Their Varsity 8 was only six seconds behind the Big Red - the 2007 national champions - and three seconds behind Columbia.
The race came down to the wire, as the Engineers' made a late push against the Lions, but eventually fell short. Despite the third place finish, there was a shining bright spot: It was MIT's best performance in the Regatta since 1993.
Unfortunately for the Engineers, their Freshman boat could not replicate the effort of the Varsity 8.
While the latter's strong showing was due to a late push, the former's third-place showing was due to the lack of one: MIT lead the race through the first half, but Columbia was able to turn it on through the second 1000 meters and come from third place to win.
The Engineers are hoping to carry that momentum into this weekend while the Quakers are hoping to reverse their most recent results.
Last weekend, the Quakers fell 21 seconds short of Princeton in the Wood-Hammond Cup. The Tigers clocked a 6:05.8 in the 2000-meter Varsity race while the Quakers finished in 6:26.6. That differential is a far cry from the past few years, when Penn finished only a few seconds back of Princeton.
Indeed, if the number-crunchers from Cambridge, Mass., have their way, they'll enjoy similar success against the Red and Blue.
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