Rowers Garner Mixed Results

Saturday morning marked two firsts of the season for the Radcliffe crew program, but only one of them went the Black and White’s way. The heavyweight team captured its first Cup race of the season, while the lightweights lost their first dual race to Stanford.

The eights were the star boats for the No. 15 Radcliffe heavyweight crew team on Saturday morning on Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, New York and led the Black and White to victory over Syracuse and Dartmouth. The win means that the Elizabeth O’Leary Cup, named for Radcliffe heavyweight coach Liz O’Leary, will reside in Cambridge for another year.

Through a lineup change during the week that moved senior Esther Lofgren to the stroke position and captain Liz Demers to the six seat, the Varsity Eight has been able to fine-tune its rhythm.

“We’re really powerful, but we haven’t always been able to apply all that together. This was the first weekend where all the power was laid out,” sophomore Olivia Coffey said. “It gives our team a lot of confidence going into next weekend.”

The Varsity Eight turned in a strong performance for its third win of the year, crossing the finish line with a time of 6:48.6. Both Radcliffe and the Big Green managed to get a good start, despite miscommunication between the crews and the starting officials. After staying even in the first 500 meters, the Black and White started to inch ahead.

By the last 500 meters, the outcome was all but decided, and Radcliffe managed to best Dartmouth by 6.8 seconds. Syracuse finished in third place with a time of 7:09.5.

“We were able to stay really internal in our boat and focus on the rhythm,” senior Sarah Moore said. “We probably had a length coming into the 1000 and just took it from there.”

The Second Varsity Eight dispatched both opponents in similar style, turning in a first-place finish in 7:07.1. The closest race of the day—the Varsity Four A—did not go the Black and White’s way. Syracuse, clocking in at 7:55.2, was a mere 1.6 seconds faster than Radcliffe, which finished in second place with a time of 7:56.8.

In contrast, the Varsity Four B, clocking in at 8:14.8, dominated the field in its race, which also included Black and White’s C boat. Second-place Syracuse finished a whopping 14.9 seconds behind the Radcliffe, while the team’s B boat finished in fourth.

Despite a late-charge, the Black and White lightweight Varsity Eight could not prevail over the No. 3 Stanford Cardinals on Saturday morning in No. 4 Radcliffe’s first home dual-meet of the season. It was the lightweights’ first loss of the season and drops their overall record to 3-1.

The Varsity Eight had to overcome an early Stanford lead that the Cardinals managed to hold going into the final 500 meters. But Radcliffe’s late charge, beginning with 350 meters left, ultimately came too late, even though the Black and White managed to close the gap from eight seat-lengths to five.

“I think we came out with them at the start and then through the middle 1000, we kind of dropped off and they slowly wore us away feet by feet,” junior Grace Hollowell said. “I think we could have been more aggressive and charged hard through the middle 1000.”

The Cardinals would hold on to cross the finish line with a time of 7:14.69, less than two seconds ahead of Radcliffe’s 7:16.22 finish. The Second Varsity Eight, which also competed in the race, did not manage to keep up the strenuous pace and finished in third place in 7:48.51.

“I think we ran out of course,” Hollowell said. “If we had had another 100 meters, I think we would have gotten them.”

Stanford dominated the novice race with a 8:22.01 finish time compared to Radcliffe’s 8:51.02.

Next weekend, the lightweights will face another top national opponent, the No. 2 Princeton tigers while the heavyweights will compete in the Charles River Challenge on Saturday and Sunday.

—Staff writer Robert T. Hamlin can be reached at rhamlin@fas.harvard.edu.