Radcliffe Crews Topple Yale

Radcliffe's varsity and J.V. heavyweight eights successfully defended their recently-captured Eastern crowns Saturday against Yale as both boasts motored by the Elis midway through the two-mile race in Derby, Conn., winning by four and six lengths, respectively.

Both Yale boats left the line at 40 strokes per minute, and both took a quick lead by maintaining their cadence, while Radcliffe settled to a 34 after 20 strokes.

In the varsity race, the Elis made their lead stand up for over a mile, but were unable to maintain it thereafter as Radcliffe blew by them with three-fourths of a mile remaining to score eventually a 16-second victory.

The course contained two turns, the first at the quarter mile mark with Yale having the inside lane, and the second at one and a quarter miles with Radcliffe enjoying the advantage.

The varsity took a power 20 just prior to the second curve to transform the length's deficit into a small lead, and then gained open water on a second power 20 during the turn to seal the victory.

Out in Front

The J.V., after trailing early in the race, passed its Yale opponents on their own turn, and then kept on going, finishing 23 seconds in front of the hapiess Bulldogs.

Stroke Nancy Hermann and Karen Oberhauser kept the stroke down to a 32, while Yale blew themselves out by rowing a 36 for the duration of the race. The Elis were unable to maintain their power for two miles at that high cadence, and faded out of serious contention after only a mile.

By overcoming Yale, both crews finished their regular season undefeated. The varsity slate stands at 10-0, while the J.V. boasts a 9-0 mark. More importantly, though, both crews have won the Eastern Women's Rowing Association championships, and in doing so have defeated all the other major collegiate women's eights in the country.

A Brush With Yale

It was the pre-race antics that highlighted the day's events, however. Following the men's New Haven tradition where both crews attempt to paint a certain rock at the starting line with their respective school colors, coaches Peter Huntsman and John Baker teamed up with coxswains Nancy Hadley and Amy Sacks to paint a large black square with a white Radcliffe "R" on the Eli dock, the official's boat, a starting-line rock, and a TV tower midway through the course. This occurred at midnight on Friday. The Bulldogs refused to be outdone, though, and repainted them all by noon Saturday.

But last year's captain Connie Cervilla '74, manager Robin Chase, and Huntsman retaliated again, painting the tower and rock over in the black and white, and then covering them with vaseline.

Yale managed to put a "#2" after the "R" on the tower just prior to the race; when the Elis left the dock on their painting expedition, Huntsman slyly repainted the official's boat with a black "R", By racetime (8 p.m.), the rock and the boat were still black. Moreover, the Radcliffe colors still showed through the hastily-covered blue and white dock.

The "#2" remained on the tower as the sole Bulldog victory of the day. But just before the Radcliffe squad departed. Sacks symbolically painted that over also, in addition to hoisting a broom on a Yale flagpole to signify a clean sweep. It was clear to all who was in fact number one.