At Head of the Charles, Women's Boats in Middle of the Pack

As the clouds parted over the Charles River yesterday, the big boys and girls of the Head of the Charles came out to play.

The varsity and second varsity of both the Radcliffe heavyweight and lightweight crews competed yesterday, and all posted solid showings in the regatta.

The star on the river for the Black and White, however, was the heavyweight freshman eight, which posted a third-place finish on Saturday in the club eight division.

This was a good sign of things to come for the heavyweights, as this boat’s success signifies a strong, deep program.

“They had a phenomenal race,” senior co-captain Laura Larsen-Strecker said. “It’s really exciting—we’re just going to take that speed and go.”

And even more impressive than the freshman eight’s result was the way in which the boat attained it. Getting stronger throughout the race, Radcliffe posted the fastest final mile of any of those in the top three. The eight gained two seconds on second-place Alabama and an astounding six seconds on first-place Tennessee. In the end, the crew posted a time of 17.29.7, finishing just nine seconds behind the Volunteers.

It was a different story for the rest of the heavyweight team. Competing in the championship eight races on Sunday, both the first and second varsity eights finished in the middle of the pack.

But results aren’t everything, and the heavyweights understand the season is long and the Head of the Charles is just the start.

“We always go into our race with an aim to win—it’s not worth going out to the race unless you want to win it,” junior co-captain Liz Demers said. “But we were really proud with the outcome. The boat felt really good throughout the race, our coxswain steered an amazing race.”

The first varsity finished sixth among the collegiate boats and eighth overall in posting a time of 16.38.04.

The crew ended the race 11 seconds behind defending national champion Brown, which wound up fourth and 17 seconds behind collegiate winner Michigan.

The race started well for the Black and White, which kept up with Brown over the first half of the course. But after passing Weld Boathouse, the crew lost speed and fell back over the final third.

In head racing, in which a boat does not have its opponents in its sights to push the squad to row faster, this slowing down is bound to occur.

“Our stroke rate was higher than we expected,” Demers said. “But [during the race], we moved away from the boats ahead of us, so they were able to race against each other, whereas we were alone for the entire race.”

And over the dogged and difficult last turn of the Charles, this was too much for the heavyweights to overcome.

“Coming through [Weld Boathouse], there’s the long turn,” Demers added. “If you don’t have anything to push you, you can get a little too content with your stroke and lose a little energy. That being said, there was no visible weakening on our end—we rowed our best.”

The Radcliffe lightweights also posted solid times on the river. Racing two boats in the lightweight eight regatta yesterday, the Black and White notched seventh and 11th-place finishes.

And both crews have the same goals in mind after this weekend’s race: continuing to build speed for the season to come.

“It’s really just continuing what we’ve been working on in the weeks ahead,” Demers said.

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.