Women’s Heavyweights Falter on The Road

No. 16 Radcliffe heavyweight crew had every intention of redeeming its loss against Brown last week as it took on No. 6 Princeton and Cornell this past Saturday. But the cool waters of Cayuga Lake Inlet simply didn’t flow in the Black and White’s favor, as Radcliffe was outmatched by both of its Ancient Eight rivals in the Class of 1975 Cup.

Radcliffe (0-3) dropped each of its five races, allowing the undefeated Tigers (6-0) to cruise to another cup win. Princeton handily clinched the Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Eight, and Varsity Four contests, crossing the finish line at 6:51.9, 6:58.0, and 8:00.6, respectively. The victory handed the Tigers their 22nd win in the Class of 1975 Cup series. Meanwhile, the Big Red (3-3) sped past the Black and White in the Third Varsity race at 7.24.4, and in the Fourth Varsity at 8:00.4.

“I had hoped we had made progress in the past week [at practice], but obviously the results didn’t show that,” said Black and White coach Liz O’Leary.

For Radcliffe, the regatta seemed to be a standout performance for the wrong reasons. The Black and White witnessed a stark gap between its results at practice and its times on race day, leaving many on the team at a loss for explanation.

“It’s hard to put [what happened] into words,” said junior 2V rower Kate Morris. “On the whole, we didn’t perform the way one ideally would like to, but we hope that we’ll be able to improve.”

The most surprising results for Radcliffe came in the First and Second Varsity races. The Black and White 2V boat’s time of 7:08.6 was unexpectedly almost 10 seconds faster than the higher-ranked 1V boat’s results.

“I don’t particularly think the first boat performed to the speed it’s shown in the past,” O’Leary said. “We definitely need to see improvement on the first and second boat levels and have to find a way to be more competitive on the racecourse.”

Yet some of the rowers opted to interpret the 2V squad’s result as an indication of the team’s potential.

“There were performances during the race that were positive enough to provide the team optimism to move forward in the future,” Morris said. “My [2V] boat did well. I gave the race everything that I had, and that in itself is a huge accomplishment for me.”

In fact, the Varsity Four boat gave Radcliffe its closest shot at redemption.

Despite trailing Cornell’s boat for much of the course length at headwind, the Black and White was able to catch up in the final 500 meters and finished only one-tenth of a second behind the Big Red for third place in 8:18.3.

Still, Radcliffe has now surrendered regattas to three straight Ivy League opponents.

Yet, the Black and White knew full well entering the spring that its strength and resolve would be tested over the course of the season. Between graduating 12 seniors last year—most of whom were on the 1V or 2V boats—and facing a challenging schedule, Radcliffe realizes that success lies in constantly making adjustments.

“You can’t forget that the teams we’ve raced over the past few weeks are in the top five or six crews in the nation,” O’Leary said. “Winning might require new team combinations, but ultimately it’s going to come down to whoever’s in the lineup figuring out how to be faster on race day.”

Up next for Radcliffe is a quest to claim the O’Leary Cup against Syracuse and No. 20 Dartmouth on the Charles this coming weekend.

“Dartmouth looks particularly strong this year,” O’Leary said. “The only way to get faster is to race fast crews. The downside to that is if you’re even a little bit off your game, you end up paying the price.”