Saturday was a busy day for Penn’s athletic teams and the Quakers put up impressive performances on water and land.
The women’s rowing team, in their final regular-season race of the spring, earned a trio of gold medals in the Kelly Cup. Competing on the Schuylkill River, the Red & Blue placed first in the Varsity Eights, the Varsity Fours, and the Second Varsity Fours.
The men’s heavyweight and lightweight rowing teams competed on the Schuylkill as well, in the Bergen Cup. The lightweight team was victorious in the Second Varsity Eights and the Third Varsity Eights, and the heavyweight team triumphed in the Fourth Varsity Eights.
At the Penn Twilight in the afternoon at Franklin Field, the men’s and women’s track and field teams faced off against Villanova, and the Quakers were the victors in a host of events.
Freshman sprinter Isabella Whittaker won the 200-meter with a time of 23.76 and the 400-meter with a time of 52.50. Both times are second-best in school history.
Senior middle distance runner Melissa Tanaka won the 1500-meter with a time of 4:19.64, and junior distance runner Ariana Gardizy won the 10,000-meter with a time of 34:45.57.
In the pole vault, senior Michelle Rubinetti won the day, clearing 3.82 meters (12 feet, 6.25 inches). In the triple jump, junior Tamara Grahovac leaped into first place with a mark of 12.90 meters (42 feet, 4 inches), second-best in school history.
Senior Camille Dickson (100-meter, long jump), junior Skyla Wilson (400-meter hurdles), junior Claire Moreau (high jump), and junior Mayyi Mahama (hammer) also placed first in their respective events.
On the men’s side, senior captain and distance runner Ryan Renken was victorious in the mile with a time of 4:00.68, third-best in school history.
Senior thrower Campbell Parker won the hammer throw with a mark of 57.64 meters (189 feet, 1 inch) and the discus with a mark of 49.16 meters (161 feet, 3 inches).
Freshman Ben Kioko (javelin), sophomore Olatide Abinusawa (shot put), freshman Dimitri Nicholson (100-meter), sophomore Emerson Douds (200-meter), sophomore Robbie Ruppel (400-meter), freshman Jack Meigel (high jump), and senior Demetri Whitsett (long jump) were tops in their respective events as well.
The baseball team played a doubleheader against La Salle at the Explorers’ Hank DeVincent Field and won both games, 7-6 and 16-3.
In the first game, the Quakers were trailing 1-0 before they exploded for five runs in the fourth inning. They added one run in the fifth and another in the sixth.
Junior centerfielder Tommy Courtney and junior shortstop Craig Larsen both scored two runs. Larsen, senior second baseman Eduardo Malinowski, and sophomore leftfielder Seth Werchan had two hits each.
The Red & Blue scored four runs in the top of the first in Game 2 and never looked back. They scored three more in the fifth, two in the sixth, one in the seventh, and six in the eighth, and racked up 24 hits.
All nine starters had at least two hits. Courtney, freshman third baseman Wyatt Henseler, Larsen, and sophomore catcher Jackson Appel had three hits apiece. Henseler also had four RBIs.
