Radcliffe Bags Six Medals in Big Sprints Haul

If you looked at the results tabulated on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., yesterday, there was one constant: Radcliffe, like George and Wheezy before them, kept moving on up.

By the end of the day, the team had done the Jeffersons proud, attaining six total medals at EARC Eastern Sprints.

In the heavyweight division, the Black and White put all six of its boats in the Grand Final, passing through numerous heats to notch a gold in the third varsity B four competition, silvers in the varsity A four and second varsity eight, and a bronze for the second novice eight boat. The varsity eight finished just out of medal position in fourth.

For the lightweights, the novice eight paced the team’s success, continuing its undefeated season to take home the gold. The novices, finishing its dominating spring on the right note, came in with a time of 7:07.7 to beat out Wisconsin by eight seconds.

The second varsity added to the Black and White’s success on the day with a silver-medal performance.

Overall, for both crews, the performance met and exceeded expectations.

“We were definitely really happy with all of our boats making it to the Grand Finals, it was something we were working toward the entire year,” said senior heavyweight captain Katie Golden. “We feel like Radcliffe had a strong performance overall.”

The heavyweights performed well form top to bottom, making a strong pitch for its season to continue. The selection committee will decide on May 15 whether Radcliffe will be part of the 16-boat field for the NCAA Championships in two weeks, or whether its year ended yesterday.

After failing to make the NCAAs for the first time in a decade last season, after yesterday’s performance, the team has made its case to go dancing again.

“The first step is getting that NCAA bid, which is out of our hands,” Golden said. “[But] we felt like the varsity eight had an accomplishment in beating Dartmouth and the 2V did well in beating out teams they had fallen to earlier in the season.”

For the heavyweights, the first varsity boat narrowly missed the bronze, trailing third-place Princeton by just over a second in the Grand Final. Despite the narrow miss, the Black and White still gained on the national competition, taking out rival Dartmouth, a squad it had lost to twice already this season.

For the heavies, that was a sign of good things to come.

“We feel like our boats have been gaining speed over the course of the season,” Golden said. “And I think this weekend showed that.”

The lightweight varsity eight had similar misfortunes, finishing fourth, seven seconds behind third-place Georgetown. The crew posted a time of 7:14.1 to the Hoyas’ 7:07.5 pace.

As a result, the story for the lights on the day was the novice eight. The varsity eight will live to row another day—with season-ending IRA National Championships near on the horizon—but for this golden novice boat, yesterday was its last day on the river.

Yet, after an undefeated season, capped by its gold-medal performance yesterday, the future for the members of this all-star boat appears very bright.

“Especially as a senior, looking at the program as a whole, it is exciting to know we have that kind of depth and strength,” said senior lightweight captain Jennifer Chung. “They’re going to be around for the next three years, so definitely it means a lot for the program.”

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