Fight to the Finish

In a triumph of New England racing, No. 2 Yale and No. 12 Harvard dominated No. 3 Virginia in high-stakes, cross-regional competition Saturday on the Housatonic River.

“By beating Virginia in both the varsity eight, the [second varsity], and the four, we established we’re a faster team, but it’s also important to understand how the regions stack up against each other for NCAA selection,” said Harvard assistant coach Cory Bosworth. “You want to beat everyone in your region, and you want them to beat everyone as well.”

Powering through a strong headwind at 10-12 miles per hour, every crew battled through the course slower than expected.

In the varsity eight, Radcliffe surged from behind to overtake Virginia and finish behind winner Yale, who retained the Case Cup. The Bulldogs finished the race in 7:17.9, the Black and White pulled in at 7:22.6, and Virginia finished at 7:23.7. Trailing the Cavaliers by as much as six seats through the middle 1000 meters of the race, Radcliffe made an impressive move to push back and overtake the higher-ranked crew.

“Yale’s course is unique in that it has a turn, so the crews start on a staggered start,” junior stroke Sarah Moore said. “We had a pretty good start, and we came off holding even with Yale at first. Virginia was harder to gauge as they were a full lane over. We were down almost about a length on each crew after they took a lot of length on the inside of the turn. We tried to handle them as best we could and stay internally focused and row our own race at our own rhythm.”

“It’s the race of the day anytime you have ranked teams like those,” Bosworth said. “Obviously, we’ve never faced them before, [and] the rankings are based on comparative results across the country. We didn’t know what we were going to see, and to upset the No. 3 team in the first varsity is a rare and awesome thing.”

“We were really excited for this weekend, because Yale is the defending champion in the varsity, and both are incredibly strong programs,” Moore said. “This was the first year we raced Virginia in what is usually [a race between] just us and Yale. Also, we were coming off some pretty good momentum from last weekend, so we were looking forward to it.”

The second varsity eight also edged out the Cavaliers but was defeated by the Bulldogs by 5.7 seconds. Much like the first varsity, the second varsity came from behind to finish second, winning by the larger margin of 2.9 seconds.

“They are becoming a crew very capable coming from behind, which gives us heart attacks in the launch but is wonderful to see,” Bosworth said. “The goal for them is to go after Yale.”

Radcliffe’s youngest put on a show in the novice eight race, winning by 15.4 seconds and scorching both Yale and Virginia.

“The novices were dominant in their race,” Bosworth said. “It’s always exciting to win at Yale in any event. They deserve kudos for rowing through tough conditions. They stayed mentally in the game and executed the right technical changes to navigate tough water.”

The order of finish in the third varsity four was Yale, Virginia, and Radcliffe as the Black and White pulled in a full 7.7 seconds behind the Cavaliers. Virginia won the second novice eight, as the Bulldogs did not field a boat.

“It was very exciting,” Moore said. “The Yale boathouse is on the finish line and all the fans and teammates are there. It was the only time I’ve been aware of a crowd in a race. We hadn’t really been able to reverse the momentum of the race to move back into a winning position, but I think we’re building that capability right now, and I think it just gives us a lot of momentum.”

Looking ahead, the Black and White will return to the Charles for the Beanpot next weekend and then begin full preparation for EAWRC Sprints on May 18th, which is critical to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

“I think we’ve done a better job this year than in years past for a team bid for NCAAs.,” Moore said. “It all really depends on how we do at Eastern Sprints, but we’re feeling pretty optimistic and looking forward to racing Yale again.”

—Staff writer Elizabeth A. Joyce can be reached at eajoyce@fas.harvard.edu.