Penn women’s rowing finishes sixth in NCAA Championships

Standing in the shade by the side of the Cooper River, a chisel couldn’t wipe the smile off Wesley Ng’s face on Sunday. The Penn women’s rowing coach has had the best 10 days of his life. He became a father for the first time when his son was born recently, and his Quakers added to that by making Penn rowing history in finishing sixth at the NCAA Rowing Championships.

The three-day event concluded Sunday on the Cooper River in Pennsauken with the Quakers finishing behind traditional national powers Stanford (129 points), Washington (120), Princeton (113), Texas and Yale in a fourth-place tie (110), followed by Penn (92).

It’s only the second time in Penn women’s rowing history that the Quakers qualified for the championships, which began in 1997. It was their best finish, after taking 11th last year in their NCAA debut.

The Quakers’ first varsity eight wrapped up the afternoon by finishing fourth in 6 minutes, 23.86 seconds, just 6.7 seconds behind first-place Stanford. Penn beat out two-time defending national champion Texas (6:28.280) by almost five seconds.

Ng had a feeling some good things would arrive during the semifinals Saturday, when the first varsity eight, comprised of coxswain Sophia Poersch, stroke Samy Morton, Hannah Lemanowicz, Aly Bennion, Alex Wiley, Brooke Caragher, Catherine Moore, Josie Konopka, and bow Amelia Demopoulos, reached the finals.

“Then to beat Texas and Yale [in the final varsity eight race], two amazing programs, was huge,” Ng said. “Last year, we lost to Texas by 13 seconds. This doesn’t get any better. It has been a pretty good last two weeks. My son was born, and then to have this happen. I have a feeling I’ll be smiling for a while, because of the work and determination this team put in.

“In rowing, it’s really hard to jump seeds and jump traditional programs. The traditional powers are the traditional powers. To really change things means to take someone else out.”

Ng, who finished his eighth season, has gradually changed the trajectory and culture of the program. It has taken time. It’s certainly taken a wealth of effort, and it took some selling to get here.

Just making the NCAA championship was a major accomplishment. Previously, the Penn’s women’s rowing program was considered an also-ran.

“Our program is different than other programs, and when people see it, we want a daily experience for people who love all aspects of the sport,” Ng said. “It’s sports science, the psychology, the team fun and getting into the entire experience of it. Rowing is a sport that’s awesome, but it’s a lot more awesome when you’re going fast and winning.”

Ng had his team practice 200 times to reach the high point on Sunday. The Quakers began practice in late-August, getting up around 6 a.m. to hit Boathouse Row, shower, and then go to class. Ng said it was a full project of summer rowing on their own time to improve.

“We’re really starting to attract rowers globally to now a program that has incredibly high-end rowing,” Ng said.

Konopka, an Episcopal Academy graduate, would get up around 5:45 a.m. to get on the team bus and spend 90 minutes on the water. A two-year starter, who’s been on the team since her freshman year, has witnessed the growth of the Penn program first hand.

“The best way I try to explain it to people is when I was on the team as a freshman, I loved the team, it was super fun to be on, but it was nowhere near as competitive as it is now,” said Konopka, who graduated with a Penn degree in political science a few weeks ago. “Seeing the growth, you can tell people are closer and willing to push each other, and commit. This was such a huge step for us today. This year really lays a baseline of expectations for other Penn teams going forward.”

Konopka said expectations for this team came immediately. It also came along with pressure that Penn women’s rowing had never faced before.

“It is really tough to plan goals nine months in advance, and then stick to it, especially when it starts to get really hard in the middle, when things start to go awry,” Konopka said. “Sharing a common goal with the whole team, seeing how we all stuck together, making everyone, regardless of what boat they were in, were dedicated to getting to where we are today.”

Making history.

» READ MORE: Penn’s women’s boats were big performers on Day 1 of the NCAA rowing championships