One of the most iconic race courses in the American circuit, the Schuylkill river will be host to several exciting races this weekend. One of those, being the Women’s Coxed Fours. This year, however, a lot has opened up in the top spots in this event. Penn will be sending out one less entry than last year, and George Washington, the bronze medal finishers last year, will not be participating. This leaves a vacancy on the podium, and another in the top 5. Several crews will be vying for those two placements, here’s who I think will be entering claiming spots in the top 5.
University of Pennsylvania
Last year, the University of Pennsylvania had a dominant performance, claiming the top two spots, and their third and final boat finishing in 5th. The gap between their B boat and third place was over 20 seconds. Despite not having raced this year, and returning with only two entries, it is very likely that, once again, Penn will walk away with multiple medals in the Women’s Coxed Fours.
Villanova University
Cross-state rivals Villanova will be looking to close the gap between them and Penn, and walk away with a medal in the Women’s Coxed Fours this year. Villanova has yet to race this season, but with a solid placement of fourth last year, beating out Penn’s third entry by just over .5 seconds, Villanova is in a prime position to make a leap onto the winner’s podium.
St. Joseph’s University
The first team out of the top 5 last year, St. Joseph’s should be the favorite to enter into the void left in the top five, and potentially take a shot at a medal. That being said, this past weekend they had a disappointing performance at Charles, finishing 31st in the Women’s Club Eights after finishing 17th last year. Had they been entering this race without the results of last weekend, I would predict them to finish higher, but unfortunately I can’t.
Trinity College
The only team on this list not native to Pennsylvania, Trinity College boasts one of the best teams in DIII women’s rowing. Finishing tenth last year, this crew has something to prove, not just on this race course, but to the rowing world as a whole. After being snubbed from last year’s DIII National Championship, Trinity has been off to a great start so far this season, competing well against D1 University of Connecticut at Head of the Riverfront, putting up gold medal performances at the Head of the Housatonic, and putting up a solid performance at Charles finishing fourth, 12th and 25th in the collegiate 8+, and members of their fourth 8+ keeping their bid with a place of 18th in the collegiate 4+. While I don’t see Trinity beating all of the tough D1 opponents also on this list, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them outperform last year, and could see them sneaking away a medal if things go their way on race day.
Prediction
It would be foolish to not predict that the University of Pennsylvania takes the top two spots this year, so I won’t. Penn will claim the gold and silver, Villanova will join them on the podium, Trinity College taking a respectable fourth for the DIII team, and St. Joseph’s moving up one spot from last year into 5th.
