Radcliffe Heavies Head West To Defend NCAA Title

This one, as they say, is for all the marbles.

Coming to the climax of an up-and-down season, the No. 4 Radcliffe heavyweight crew will pack up, head west, and defend its title at the NCAA Championships this weekend in Sacramento, Calif.

This will be the seventh straight trip to the NCAA meet for the Black and White, who last year became the first team not named Brown or Washington to take the NCAA crown.

The national championship was the centerpiece of a brilliant year for Radcliffe, which went 10-1 in dual races and captured an Eastern Sprints championship.

This season has not been such a smooth ride, with losses to No. 9 Brown, No. 2 Princeton, and No. 7 Yale earlier in the year.

But it appears that the first eight has turned the corner, demonstrated by its second-place showing at the Eastern Sprints two weekends ago in Camden, N.J.

At the meet, the Black and White topped the Bears and Bulldogs, and fell by a single second to the Tigers.

Since then, the boat has been working hard on its blade work, getting catch timing as clean and precise as possible while working on solidifying its rhythm to increase base speed.

“We have a very powerful middle four who have really figured out how to set up a rhythm in the middle of the boat that you can feel throughout the whole boat,” junior stroke Gretchen Weingarth said. “It’s this rhythm and power that it going to make it very hard for the other crews this weekend to hold us back.”

Individually, rowers have begun mentally prepping themselves for one of the biggest meets of their lives.

“I’ve been thinking about the kind of effort it is going to take to win, and steeling myself for the inevitable exhaustion and pain,” co-captain six-seat Lis Lambert said. “More importantly, I’ve been thinking about what really good strokes feel like, the exhilaration that comes from a perfect performance.”

At NCAAs, two other boats also contribute to team scoring—the second varsity eight and varsity four.

In contrast to the first eight, the 2V performed very solidly and consistently all year, only to find that selfsame consistency lacking at the Sprints finals.

“In general I think we’re totally psyched to have this second chance at the top boats in the country,” sophomore 2V three-seat Ella Spottswood said. “Anything post-season is really like a bonus round anyway.”

For success against the nation’s best boats, the second eight will need to recover the swagger it had all year.

“I think the key is execution,” senior 2V seven-seat Megan Smith said. “We have all the necessary pieces, we just need to perform start to finish consistently in the heats and the finals.”

The first four boat, which came in third at the Sprints behind Cornell, who didn’t receive an invitation to NCAAs, and Brown, has been putting in hours on the Charles tightening up its mechanics in pursuit of higher ratings and better speed.

Across the board, schools are sending competitive teams that have beat up on each other all year long.

“I think that nationwide, even in just the past couple of years, the level of competition has raised itself a notch and now there are a number of very strong programs around the country that are all legitimate contenders,” Lambert said. “It’s actually very exciting.”

The top 14 nationally ranked teams will be racing this weekend, including No. 1 undefeated Cal and No. 2 Princeton, which has lost this year only to No. 3 Ohio State.

“Six boats across with no real favorites means anything can happen, and it usually does,” Smith said.

Returning from last year’s 1V boat that grabbed a half-length win in the Grand Finals, are Lambert, senior four-seat Caroline Fisher and junior bow Heather Schofield.

“Once you reach a certain level in this sport, with margins that are so tight and competition that is across the board so fit and so technically skilled, I think the difference between winning and losing really comes down to who goes into the race prepared for, expecting, and demanding victory,” Lambert said.

Aside from the fact that the races are the NCAA Championships, there is added importance for Radcliffe’s 11 seniors that will be competing in their final events.

“There’s going to be a definite feeling of nostalgia as we line up on the starting line for the last time,” Lambert said. “But for me, anyway, its extra motivation to go out there and lay it on the line—to make the most of every single stroke, make the boat go as fast as it can, and really enjoy it.  I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

“We’re a team that pushes from all directions,” junior V4 stroke Meredith Coogan added. “The speed of the top boats is from not only their own talent, but the pressure from all around, including the novices and those not competing at the NCAAs.”

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.