PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's and men's lightweight rowing programs took home some hardware at the Navy Day Regatta on Saturday. The event, which opened both programs' fall campaigns, took place on the Schuylkill River.
 
Women
Penn's win came in the Women's Open/Collegiate JV 8+, the winning time of 13:59.880 besting 15 other boats. The Quakers' winning boat consisted of coxswain Caroline Arnett and rowers Josie Konopka, Emily Strambi, Annelise Rowling, Maggie Osumi, Susan Maroney, Izzy Harrington, Aislinn Sullivan, and Kaitlyn Tonsfeldt.
 
Penn also had two boats compete in the Women's Open/Collegiate 8+ and the Quakers were fourth and eighth in the 29-boat division. In the Women's Open/Collegiate 4+, Penn was sixth out of 37 boats.
 
"It was good to get some racing experience under our belts and test out what we have been working upon in practice," said head coach Wesley Ng. "Our fundamentals are becoming more sound and we have a platform to continue developing more speed. I'm pleased for our freshman rowers who contributed throughout all of our crews and represented the Red and Blue for the first time in their collegiate careers. Our next race is the Head of the Charles in Boston, and we look forward to showing improved speed there."
 
Lightweights
Penn won titles in the Men's Open/Collegiate Lightweight 8+, the Men's Open/Collegiate Lightweight 4+, and the Men's Open 2 without cox.
 
In the Lightweight 8+, Penn had four boats entered and they finished first, fourth, fifth and tenth in a division of 11 boats. The winning boat was clocked in 11:46.940 and comprised of coxswain Julianna Langhorn and rowers Andrew Kelly, Dominique Williams, Alex Beheshti, Colley Loum, Alexander Bowlby, Aleksandar Izda, James Gaffney and Ed Barry.
 
In the Lightweight 4+, Penn swept the top two spots in a seven-boat division. The Quakers' winning boat featured Langhorn, Kelly, Williams, Loum and Bowlby who covered the 4,000-meter course in 13:04.550. Penn's B boat was second in 13:21.950.
 
The duo of Beheshti and Justin Meeker were champions in the eight-boat Men's Open 2 without cox in a time of 14:19.970, which was more than seven seconds ahead of second-place Marist.
 
Penn also took third in the Men's Collegiate Frosh/Novice 8+ and the Men's Open Two, fifth in the Men's Collegiate JV 8+, and 28th in the single sculls.
 
Saturday was the start of a busy couple of weeks for both of these programs as they use Navy Day and other events to see where they are after fall training. Following this weekend, both crews will join the heavyweights at the prestigious Head of the Charles on Sunday, Oct. 27. The women will then conclude their fall a week later at the Head of the Schuylkill, while the lightweights will be at the Princeton Chase a day later before finishing the fall in the Frostbite Regatta on Saturday, Nov. 9.