Princeton Edges Eight, Four Soars

In a meeting of the titans of lightweight crew, No. 1 and undefeated Princeton hosted No. 3 Radcliffe for three races on Lake Carnegie in New Jersey for the Class of 1999 Cup. Though the Tigers left with the prize, the Black and White made an impressive showing in this Ivy battle, winning the third varsity four.

The morning skies cleared just in time for the varsity eight race to kick off a pleasant day for racing.

In the varsity eight race, the Tigers held on to a thin, three-second margin to win over the Black and White, finishing in 7:13.8 seconds.

“Princeton is year to year one of the top teams in lightweight crew and I think that the [first varsity] did very, very well against them,” co-captain Katharine Woodbin-Maynard said. “They did better than we have for several years and it was a very close race. It puts us in a very good position for Sprints, which is the next time we’ll see them.”

“We had a poor first 600 meters where we basically gave them almost open water and that was just a mistake of the crew,” Harvard coach William Stevens said. “It’s hard to give someone that much space and then come back, but come back they did and almost charged through them a couple of times.”

“While Princeton was a strong crew, we made a series of mistakes that cost us the race,” he added.

Yet, the race of the day came in the third varsity four. Often times this boat is forced to race against heavyweights for lack of depth in other programs. Princeton, however, fielded an impressive boat that fell to Radcliffe by seven seconds.

“The four did a phenomenal job,” Woodbin-Maynard said. “They were neck-and-neck with Princeton and able to pull ahead for a stretch. We were all very excited for them. Even the Princeton coach commented afterwards on how that was the race of the day.”

“The third varsity four had a great race led by a freshman recruit by the name of Emily Walker,” Stevens said. “She did a great job stroking that boat down the course and the rest of the boat worked well behind her. They were behind for the first 500 then worked their way through them and led the rest of the way.”

The second varsity eight race was less satisfying for the Radcliffe contingent. Falling behind the Tigers, the Black and White suffered a disappointing 13-second loss.

“They had a very tough week at practice,” Stevens said. “They just didn’t row a very good race. They lost from pretty much early on.”

“That didn’t go very well,” Woodbin-Maynard said. “We expected and should have been closer to them. We had a poor race and we’re all very disappointed in the result. At the same time, Princeton’s [second varsity] has always been the strongest in the league by far and last year. We were probably 20 or 30 seconds better this year but we should have been a lot closer.”

“We’ve only rowed together three times beforehand,” she added. “I think we need more time rowing together I think that the [first varsity] benefitted from having a more set line up.”

For all races, a headwind slowed down the second half of the course.

Technical problems at the start line also slowed things down. Princeton’s stake boat had trouble aligning the boats before the race and was forced to call a delay.

“It could have been very stressful, but our boat was able to stay focused, relax, and they didn’t let that bother them,” Woodbin-Maynard said. “They got to practice a little bit. Princeton just sat there. They didn’t practice or move around.”

Next week Radcliffe will return home to race on the Charles against MIT as the team gears up for EAWRC Sprints.

“That’s the big, big focus that we’re turning to now,” Woodbin-Maynard said.

“If we’re down again on Princeton I do not expect us to come up short,” Stevens said.

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