Men's heavyweight rowing holds practice on the Schuykill River on March 25.
Credit: Weining DingFor the first time since 2002, No. 10 Penn heavyweight rowing secured the Blackwell Cup after outpacing No. 7 Yale and No. 16 Columbia on home waters on Saturday. The Red and Blue’s varsity boat finished five seconds ahead of the Bulldogs to secure the trophy. Despite having a home-water advantage, Penn had to navigate difficult weather conditions to get the job done, rallying down the stretch to get over the finish line.
“Conditions were tough. … We were lucky that [on Friday], there were also similar conditions, so we got to practice, and I think it prepared us well,” coach Al Monte said. “You can’t take home-course advantage for granted. These guys know every inch of the river and they used that knowledge to help them. They knew exactly how long they had to go and where they were in the course.”
The Blackwell Cup is an annual competition between the Penn, Yale, and Columbia varsity crews. Named after George Engs Blackwell — an 1880 Columbia graduate — the regatta was inaugurated in 1927. With 52 all-time wins, Yale reigns supreme over its Ancient Eight rivals. Penn comes in second with 35 victories, followed by Columbia with five. Last year, the Quakers finished behind the Bulldogs in New Jersey, losing by a three-second margin.
This year, Penn’s fastest boat snapped the 23-year Blackwell Cup drought. Senior coxswain Nicole Ahadian, senior rowers Sam Sullivan, Jason Kennedy, Matthew Davis, Charles Jones, and Isak Zvegelj, junior rowers Cole Riedinger and George Rodgers, and freshman rower Marco Dri comprised the winning crew.
“We were about 30 seconds off from what we’re normally at, which is a testament to how tough the conditions were,” Riedinger said. “The headwind brought a lot of waves, which made the race much more technical. The main focus of today was to keep our length and keep our composure with a really good rhythm.”
In the past few seasons, Penn has looked to rebuild its heavyweight rowing program, focusing on changing team dynamics under Monte’s leadership.
“The year before I came to Penn, I think we lost to Yale by over 20 seconds, and conditions were actually similar to this year’s conditions,” Riedinger said. “Every year since, we’ve closed the margins, which speaks to the growth of the team. It takes everyone to be growing in the sport and fitness-wise. … The performances of all of our boats this week is a really strong indication that we will be competitive within the nation going forward.”
Next up for the Quakers is a trip to Cambridge, Mass. to take on Harvard and Navy on the Charles River. The Red and Blue will compete for the Adams Cup this weekend before taking on Cornell in the Madeira Cup on May 3. These races are part of the season buildup to the Eastern Sprints and Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championship — the most important events in the collegiate rowing calendar.
“We’re looking for progress. I think this week, we made a lot of progress toward eventually getting ourselves ready for the sprints and the IRAs, and that’s what these weeks are for,” Monte said. “Last week, we left a little bit disappointed in our performance at Princeton. … This week, we had one of the best races we could’ve put together, which yielded the result that we wanted. We need to use this week of practice so that … against Harvard and Navy, we can continue to make progress and have our next best race.”
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