Penn rowing shows improvement in weekend races against Ivy opponents

There were mixed results for Penn men's lightweight rowing and women’s rowing this weekend.

The women's team traveled to Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J. to compete in the Ivy League Invitational. In the race, the Quakers held their own against a number of high-quality Ivy League opponents, including Dartmouth and Princeton. 

Men's lightweight crew stayed home to compete against Cornell and Harvard, and the Quakers finished second. They won the Second Varsity Eights race on the Schuylkill River, improving to 5-0 on the season. 

The group posted a winning time of 5:45.9, beating both the Crimson and Big Red. They finished more than two seconds ahead of Cornell and nearly 16 seconds ahead of Harvard. The undefeated squad finished with a time of 6:00.5 in its previous race and were able to improve on that time by almost 15 seconds. 

The Varsity Eight race didn't result in a Penn victory but the group still clocked a very respectable time of 5:40.2 in the 2,000-meter race. The Quakers finished second behind Cornell, which finished at 5:38.2. The Varsity Eight team for Penn was also able to improve its time from the previous race, which was also held on the Schuylkill.

The Third Varsity Eight team ended the day in third, while the Fourth Varsity Eights came in second out of four squads. These teams hit a mark of 5:58.5 and 5:59.9, respectively, while Harvard ended in first in each of the races.

The women's team raced twice this weekend at the second annual Ivy League Invitational. The relatively new invitational involves two competitions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

In the morning races, the Varsity Eights came in third out of four teams with a time of 6:42.0. Princeton won the event with a mark of 6:25.3. The Second Varsity Eights also finished in third, coming in at a time of 6:46.8.

A third-place finish also came from the Penn Varsity Four group, which ended the race at 7:47.7. To cap off the morning, the Second Varsity Fours had a second-best time of 7:56.6, about 15 seconds behind Princeton.

The afternoon races included Yale and Columbia, who competed against the Quakers; the Bulldogs swept all four races. Penn came in second in the Varsity Eight, Varsity Four, and Second Varsity Four competitions, finishing with times of 6:23.6, 7:38.9, and 7:41.4, respectively. The Second Varsity Eights finished with a mark of 6:38.9, which was good for third place.

Up next, women’s rowing will race at the Clemson Invitational on April 19 and 20. That will be the Quakers’ final matchup before the Ivy League Championships on May 19. The men's lightweight squad will be back on the water next weekend, where it will be hosting Columbia and Yale in pursuit of the Marcellus Hartley Dodge Cup.