Black and White Slips at Eastern Sprints

Things did not go according to plan yesterday for Radcliffe crew.

Competing at the Eastern Sprints, the No. 5 heavyweights finished in third place in the race for the Willing Point Trophy, with the first varsity eight taking fourth. Meanwhile, the No. 3 first varsity lightweight boat came in third in its grand final on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.

With 60 points overall, the heavies trailed champion No. 8 Brown by 16 and No. 1 Princeton, and ended up finishing in the same position as it did last year. The Black and White placed a boat in the top five in every race but one.

After winning the title last year, the Bears were able to successfully defend it by capturing every four race and every novice race, five in all.

The Black and White first varsity came in seeded third, but had an upset on its mind as it had tied No. 6 Yale (seeded No. 2) and lost to the Tigers (seeded No. 1) by a narrow margin earlier in the season.

Radcliffe posted the second-best qualifying time en route to winning its heat earlier in the day.

In the grand final, the Black and White went off the line with the field and stuck with Princeton, Brown, and the Bulldogs up through the first 1,000 meters. But in the third 500 meters, the three crews started walking through Radcliffe. Yale won the race in 6:15.60, the Tigers took second in 6:18.00, the Bears finished one second behind them at 6:19.00, and the Black and White rounded out the top four in 6:22.20.

“It was a disappointing finish,” senior seven-seat Erin Barringer said. “We felt like we had a good race, but we were disappointed with the outcome.”

The second varsity eight had a similar experience in its grand final. Radcliffe opened its race very powerfully and was close behind Princeton, holding a four-seat advantage over Brown and a one-seat advantage over the Bulldogs at the midway point. The second 1,000 meters proved to be another story, however, as the Black and White was left behind by Princeton (6:27.30) and overtaken by Yale (6:30.00), and the Bears (6:34.20). Radcliffe timed in at 6:38.50 in fourth position.

“We had a really aggressive race, we laid everything on the line that we had, but we fell short,” sophomore seven-seat Katie Golden said. “We couldn’t have given it any more.”

Following the trend of the pair of varsity eights, the varsity four “A” boat (7:22.70) took fourth place, behind Brown (7:17.20), the Bulldogs (7:20.20) and Penn (7:21.00).

The varsity four “B” boat (7:43.30) turned in the best finish for the Black and White, placing third after the Bears (7:27.20) and the Quakers (7:32.50).

The novice eight did not qualify for the grand finals, but took third in the petite finals, while the second novice eight came in fifth and the novice four claimed fourth.

The heavies now await news on the NCAA Championships, which will take place from May 26-29 in Sacramento, Calif. Invitations will be distributed tomorrow at 4 p.m., and the Black and White certainly wants to be among the chosen ones.

“We hope that will give us something to train for,” Barringer said.

Everyone knew the lightweight Sprints title was to be settled among three teams, and that’s exactly the way it played out.

Radcliffe, Princeton, and Wisconsin fought amongst themselves again yesterday, but the results were not so sweet for the Black and White.

The Badgers took the crown securely with a time of 6:35.00 while the Tigers grabbed second in 6:39.70. The Black and White found itself in third place, finishing in 6:45.30.

The novice eight (6:54.00) raced to a second place position behind Princeton (6:46.20).

The first varsity has still not topped either team this year and is 0-2 versus the Badgers and 0-3 against the Tigers.

Wisconsin beat Princeton and took the Windermere Classic, which Radcliffe did not attend, in early April, but the Tigers vanquished both the Badgers and the Black and White four weeks ago at the Knecht Cup.

The IRA National Championships will be held June 3-4, also on the Cooper in Camden, and the winner will surely emerge from the three.

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