Radcliffe Produces Mixed Performance

For the first time in 2007, both Radcliffe crews had home-river advantage, racing together on the Charles on Saturday. And the homecoming was a sweet one for both squads.

The lightweights, coming off a strong third-place showing at the Knecht Cup last weekend, dominated Boston rival and seventh-ranked MIT, winning three of four races on the river.

The win was highlighted by an 18-second victory for the varisty eight and an astounding 42-second thumping of the Engineers by the novice eight, which remains undefeated through the first four races of this spring season.

The heavyweights posted a solid effort against steep competition, dominating the varsity four races on the Charles against No. 4 Yale and No. 19 Michigan State.

In the varisty eight race, the Black and White stuck with the tough Bulldog boat until the end, while decimating the Spartans, holding second place by more than 13 seconds.

HEAVYWEIGHTS

Facing one of its toughest non-head-to-head races of the season, the Black and White heavyweights rose to the challenge on Saturday morning.

Radcliffe came out strong against two top-20 squads, especially in its varisty four divisions of the race.

In those heats, the Radliffe A and B varisty four squads each posted impressive victories, with the A squad posting an impressive time of 7:50.6 and beating out the No. 19 Spartans by a five-second margin.

Later, the B team thumped Michigan State by almost 13 seconds, notching a time of 8:05.2 to the Spartans 8:18.1. The Bulldogs finished a distant third in both races.

“I think everyone overall was really satisfied,” freshman Ariel Shaker said. “We want to be able to beat teams like Yale, especially when its comes time for [Eastern] Sprints.”

Despite not earning first place in the varsity eight division, the Black and White still raced impressively.

The crew rallied from third-place position after 500 meters to row past Michigan State, which Radcliffe eventually beat by 13 seconds.

The Black and White almost caught the Bulldogs with its strong final push, but eventually fell five seconds short.

“[To improve], it’s mostly about attacking the first 1000 a little more,” Shaker said. “We need to find that really great rhythm from the first stroke in the race.”

After dominating Columbia last weekend, the crew is anxious to continue finding more and more speed in the weeks to come.

LIGHTWEIGHTS

As expected, the Black and White lightweights thoroughly dominated MIT on the Charles on Saturday.

It was not just the three victories out of four, which impressed so much, but the way the team did it.

The varsity eight boat crushed the Engineers to win by more than 18 seconds, posting an impressive time of 7:25.6.

And then came the novice eights. Posting a time of 7:13.8, a pace even faster than its varsity counterparts, the Radcliffe novices bolted through the river to beat the novice Engineers by a whopping 42-second margin.

The novice eight now remains undefeated in its first four races of the spring season.

“For us, we raced our own race,” sophomore Kayla Feld said. “[But] we’re always focusing on having better performances.”

Combined with the strong efforts of its varsity and novice fours, the team gained confidence from such an impressive performance.

The squad will need that momentum next weekend, as the crew faces perennial rival Princeton on the Charles on Saturday.

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