Tigers sink Red and Blue’s crews

Beating Princeton is a priority for any Penn squad, but for two of the rowing teams this weekend, that task proved especially daunting.

The men’s lightweight and women’s crews took to Princeton’s Lake Carnegie with the aim of upsetting the respective No. 1 and No. 2 Tigers, as well as other ranked opponents.

But Princeton was up to the task, emerging victorious in both contests.

The Tigers took two of three Varsity 8 races on the men’s side, outpacing the Quakers by a combined 19 seconds. Meanwhile, the women’s team finished no higher than third in any of its five races Saturday.

Nonetheless, the Quakers returned home with a number of minor victories under their belt.

Despite finishing behind Princeton and Bucknell, the women’s second and third varsity boats managed to best No. 17 Dartmouth.

Coach Mike Lane was delighted with how the third boat performed against such strong opposition.

“At any given moment during the race, we were up front, then we were second, then we were third, then we were up front again,” he said.

And although the men’s lightweight third varsity boat lost the Wood-Hammond Trophy to the Tigers in the varsity eight event, the Red and Blue finished three seconds ahead of Princeton to take first in the third varsity boat.

“We had a decent race,” Penn coach Nick Baker said, “but you can’t have a decent race against the defending national championship crew and expect to come out on top.”

With the victory, the Tigers kept their winning streak against the Quakers — which has now lasted for over two years — alive.

Meanwhile, the men’s heavyweight team faced similarly strong competition in a Boston-based doubleheader.

On Saturday, Penn dropped all five of its races against Harvard and Navy.

While heavyweight coach Greg Myhr emphasized his team’s improvement since their last race, he acknowledged that beating the No. 4 and No. 16 crews on Saturday was never likely.

“We weren’t up to the level of Harvard or Navy really, in any of our races,” he said.

In the Quakers’ second meet, the freshman eight boat continued its successful spring with a nine-second victory over Northeastern in Penn’s sole win of the weekend.

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