Radcliffe Heavies Face Stiff Test at Williams

Fresh off a stunning triumph against MIT and B.U. for the Burger King Trophy last week, the Radcliffe heavyweight crew goes from the kettle into the fire in its race this weekend at Williams College.

Radcliffe will be facing the iron of Eastern women's crew--Connecticut College (second in the Sprints last year to Radcliffe), Williams (third in the Sprints), the University of Massachusetts, Barnard College, and B.U. On paper, all of the crews but Barnard are capable of putting together the kind of race needed to win.

Connecticut should provide the stiffest challenge to Radcliffe. Connecticut thinks it can go all the way this year: it beat Yale earlier in the season by seven seats, while Radcliffe edged the Elis only by a narrow two-seat margin.

Should Not Be Counted Out

Even though B.U. lost by six seconds to Radcliffe last week, the Terriers should not be counted out. B.U. Coach Dan Bakinowski has planned a number of changes in his boat in order to get a smoother, faster rowing combination.

"We were using our new boat for the first time last week, and we had some trouble getting used to it. But we've had another week to prepare for them [Radcliffe] and we should do better," he said.

Radcliffe coach John Baker has made a minor change in his varsity eight to even the boat out. Baker has moved oarswoman Katie Moss up to number three, and pushed Judy Ames back to the vacated bow slot.

The race will provide a preview of the Eastern Sprints Championship next week, and Radcliffe is sky-high for the encounter. They're even getting to eat brunch at the Varsity Club Saturday morning, a rare use of that facility.

A further incentive will be to prove wrong the prediction by Williams coach George Marcus, who picked Radcliffe to finish third behind Connecticut and UMass.