'Cliffe Heavy weights Rout B.U., MIT

The Radcliffe heavyweight crew settled the question of who's queen of the Charles by trouncing Boston University and MIT by one and three-quarters lengths Saturday, capturing the first annual Burger King Invitational Women's Regatta Trophy.

Once again, Radcliffe had problems with its start. Number-seven woman. Allison Hall caught a crab on the third stroke of the race and a member of the bow four washed out during the ensuing few strokes. Because of the early mishaps, Radcliffe found itself even with B.U. and uncomfortably trailing MIT by two seats ten strokes into the race.

After taking these first ten at a cadence of 40 strokes per minute, Radcliffe took the next twenty at a slightly lower 39 beat.

"We really got it together for the next twenty," said coxswain Nancy Hadley, "and we started to move on them."

Move Radcliffe did, and by the 200-meter mark Radcliffe had pulled slightly ahead of MIT, with B.U. four seats off the pace.

It was at the 250-meter point that Radcliffe just exploded past MIT and B.U. Radcliffe increased its lead with every stroke, so that by the 750-meter mark, Radcliffe had a healthy length and a half advantage.

Radcliffe continued to add to its lead throughout the rest of the race, and the sprint for the final 20 strokes at a 38 cadence was only icing on the cake.

Radcliffe coach John Baker was happy with his team's performance. "Except for the crabs at the start, we rowed well;" he said.

Going into the race, B.U. had been expected to present a stiff challenge to Radcliffe, but the B.U. threat never materialized.

The Radcliffe junior varsity had little trouble in its race, taking command at the start and whipping the Terrier J.V.'s by eight seats.