Harvard, Radcliffe Heavyweights Win at Stonehurst

Both Harvard and Radcliffe crews found success last weekend at the Stonehurst Capital Invitational Ragatta held in Rochester, N.Y.

The invitational consisted of two parts—a morning head race of three miles and a sprint in the afternoon. The sprint times were weighted and the times compiled to determine the champions.

Radcliffe and Harvard will face several of the same boats they met in Rochester at the Head of the Charles event this weekend.

Radcliffe Heavyweights

The Black and White took first place this weekend in the Women’s Open Eight Division, capturing the Elaine P. Wilson Cup for the third straight year.

For Radcliffe, the Stonehurst Capital Invitational provided the crew with an early glimpse of the teams it would be competing against for the rest of the year.

“I was really excited. The whole team was,” captain Michelle Guerette said. “We have a lot of young rowers just coming on to the scene and it was our first chance to test ourselves.”

More specifically, the Black and White would have its chance to battle Syracuse, a crew that beat Radcliffe in a dual meet last spring.

“We were aware that Syracuse was pretty stong and that they might try to make up a lot of distance in the beginning of the race,” Guerette said. “Right off the start, we got into our own solid rhythm. They took some moves on us but we kept pushing them back.”

In spite of some trouble the boat had in a rough section of water, Radcliffe finished with a leading time of 17:39.25, with Syracuse coming in at 17:45.24.

In the afternoon, the Black and White again faced the Orangewomen in a sprint race set on a turn. Because of the turn, the boats were staggered, with Radcliffe starting down on Syracuse.

“I think we used that to our advantage early on,” Guerette said. “We pushed hard to get even with [Syracuse].”

Radcliffe started behind, but it pulled out in front, with a winning time of 5:04.02. Syracuse pulled in just behind the Black and White at 5:05.73.

“As we were coming around, the coxswain started calling seats,” Guerette said. “We were down three seats, down two, then we were up half a boat length. Syracuse had a strong push towards the end, but we were able to bring the rate up at the end of the race. It wasn’t necessarily the prettiest race, but we just stayed on it and pulled through.”

With its sprint time weighted to a time of 15:12.06, the Black and White finished with a championship time of 32:51.31.

Harvard Heavyweights

The Harvard heavyweight boat also won first place, garnering the George M. Angle Cup for the fourth time. The Crimson also won the championship in 1990, 1991 and 2000.

Harvard faced a number of its regular-season foes in this early regatta, as boats from Brown, Cornell, Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown, among others, were in attendence.

“I thought it was really good for our first time out this season,” captain Wayne Pommen said. “It was also pretty cool

because we didn’t really have a varsity boat together; it was really a boat based on seniority.”

In the morning race, the Crimson remained somewhat within the pack of competitors until the end of the race, when Harvard pulled away from just about everyone to finish with a time of 15:28.89, 15 seconds ahead of Brown, the nearest boat.

“We hadn’t really done any practice of that kind—any long pieces at a high rate,” Pommen said. “So we just went out

there and told ourselves to be aggressive. We stayed on it the whole time.”

In the afternoon sprint, Harvard faced off against Brown, one of the toughest crews in the nation. The Crimson managed to pull away from the Bears and finish at 4:25.85, with Brown following at 4:28.65.

With its sprint time weighted, Harvard won first place with a championship time of 28:46.44. The Brown boat’s time of 29:09.94 placed the Bears in second.

Harvard Lightweights

The Crimson finished the regatta in sixth place, with the Yale ‘A’ boat winning the championship in a time of 29:09.62.

“We had a gutsy effort from the crew we sent up there,”co-captain Joe Finelli said. “I was happy with their work all

week. Everything I asked out of them, we got it.”

Yale commanded the regatta from the start, with a winning time of 15:40.64 in the morning race, almost 20 seconds faster than the nearest boat. Harvard finished sixth with a time of 16:43.72, with Cornell trailing in its wake at 16:58.93.

“In the morning head race, it took a little while for us to find a good rhythm,” Finelli said. “By the time we were way down, we were trying to fend off Cornell. We were rowing pretty well by the middle mile, but towards the third mile, we were getting a little tired and were still fending off Cornell.”

In the afternoon race, the Crimson finished in seventh place with a time of 4:45.77. Yale won with a time of 4:29.66.

At the end of the regatta, Harvard had tallied a time of 31:01.03 while the Yale ‘A’ boat took the championship and the Yale ‘B’ boat won fifth.

The Crimson will have another shot at the Elis this weekend at Head of the Charles.