Radcliffe Tops Foes From Home, Abroad

They may be pretty in pink, but the Radcliffe women’s lightweight and heavyweight crews proved their power Saturday morning on the Charles River at the annual Beanpot Championships. With every rower sporting a pink shirt to support breast cancer awareness, both teams swept their local rivals to finish the cup season and prepare for the upcoming national championships.

On the heavyweight team, all four varsity boats pulled out solid wins, with each crew beating its competition by over 11 seconds to keep possession of the Beanpot trophy and team banner for the third consecutive year. In the last home race of the season, the No. 16 varsity eight started the day off, jumping to an early lead against Northeastern, Boston University, Columbia, Boston College and MIT. The boats would finish in that order, with Radcliffe claiming an 11.5-second lead over second place Northeastern, easily winning the Rowlands Cup for the 11th straight year.

“I think it was a really good race for all of the boats,” said senior Esther Lofgren, who rowed four-seat in the varsity eight. “Even though the conditions were rough again, we really had a strong start and were able to build off of it. There are still things we are working on, but for us seniors this was our last race on the Charles for Radcliffe and it was a good race to end on going into Eastern Sprints.”

The second varsity eight crushed its competition, crossing the finish line 15 seconds before second-place BU. In the fours events, the Radcliffe A four placed first with a time of 7:58, while the B and C fours took first and second in the next race. The only loss for Radcliffe came in the novice eight event, where the crew came in second place, four seconds behind Columbia.

Radcliffe’s lightweight team had similar success on the Charles Saturday, soundly beating MIT in the varsity and second varsity events to claim the first-ever Linda Muri Cup. The cup, named after Harvard freshman lightweight men’s coach Linda Murri, who herself has won three world championships and 18 national championships, honored the MIT and Harvard grad for her contribution to the rowing community.

“I think she’s the most decorated lightweight rower in the US, so it’s an incredible honor to be racing for a cup after her name,” said Rebekah Kharrazi, senior captain of the Radcliffe lightweight team. “She’s been such a force in rowing, I think it’s definitely something that should have been awarded to her a long time ago.”

Coming off a win against then-No. 2 Princeton, the No. 2 varsity eight took the lead from No. 7 MIT from the start, and continued to dominate the event as they passed the halfway mark. Beating MIT by a little over 21 seconds, Radcliffe cruised to the line with a time of 7:27.71.

In the second varsity eight race Radcliffe crushed MIT by 37 seconds, while in the novice four event, Radcliffe placed second to the Boston College heavyweights. Columbia’s heavyweight four came in third.

On Sunday, the Radcliffe lightweights took the opportunity to scrimmage against visiting lightweight crews from Western Ontario and Queens in Toronto. In remarkable fashion, the first eight again went on to win every race while the second varsity pulled off solid performances against the two Canadian crews.

“I think the racing went really well,” Kharrazi said. “Again, [we’re] using every race opportunity to get faster.”

With these wins, both the lightweight and heavyweight squads find themselves in a good position going into the EAWRC Sprints May 17.

“Obviously it was a great day for the team, a big confidence boost to know that we are the fastest team on the Charles,” said heavyweight varsity eight coxswain Jill Carlson. “The size of the margins are really telling, so that’s another confidence booster for us going into Sprints.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.