Radcliffe Crews Upset Stanford, Win Handily

Both Radcliffe crews emerged victorious this weekend, extending stellar seasons on the water for the women rowers.

The Black and White heavyweight crew traveled to Syracuse, N.Y. to take on Syracuse and Ivy rival Dartmouth, while the Radcliffe lightweight crew defended the Charles River against Princeton, BU, and reigning national champion Stanford.

Out of the seven races held this weekend, the Black and White crews dropped just one and won both title races—the first varsity eight battles—continuing the lightweights’ undefeated season.

HEAVYWEIGHTS

After the O’Leary Cup was postponed due to heavy winds, the Radcliffe heavyweights defended last year’s win to bring the O’Leary Cup, named after the Black and White’s head coach, Liz O’Leary, back to Weld Boathouse on Sunday morning.

“This is the first time in a long time that we won every single race, so it was a really good day for us,” O’Leary said. “I certainly don’t want to lose the Cup. I want to keep it in our house; I want it in our boathouse, and in a little way, that’s sort of an incentive. You can’t help that.”

The first varsity eight raced last on the river and followed up where the previous Radcliffe boats left off, grabbing an early lead and then hanging on, finishing the two-kilometer course in 6:47.9 as Syracuse and the Big Green battled it out for the second spot.

“It probably wasn’t an easy race, in terms of technical skills, but power-wise and outcome-wise, it was obviously just exactly what we wanted,” O’Leary said. “We were lucky to get out in the second 500, we got out 3/4 of a length. Between Syracuse and Dartmouth, the two of them were having quite a race for second and third. Whenever you’re in a three-boat race and two boats are having a tight race, if you’re the crew that’s ahead of that race, you have to be careful because that race can catch up to you. ”

The third varsity eight opened up a quick six-seat lead over the Orange at the 500-meter mark, eventually besting Syracuse by 14 seconds. The varsity four ‘B’ fared similarly, finding open water over the Orange in the middle 1000 to cross the finish line 18 seconds before Syracuse.

The two other NCAA-qualifying crews showed positive results for the Black and White as well, with the varsity four ‘A’ pulling out an eight-second victory after a false start delayed the race. The second varsity eight represented Radcliffe’s closest race of the day, as the Black and White crew edged the Orange by two seconds.

LIGHTWEIGHTS

The Radcliffe lightweight team welcomed some of the best in the nation to the Charles River Lightweight Invite as Wisconsin and Stanford, two of the top rowing teams in the nation, were scheduled to come. Wisconsin failed to make the trip due to the week’s events, which also put a wrench in the Black and White’s training leading up to the Invite.

“It’s been a really challenging week,” said Emma Lukasiewicz, sixth seat of the first varsity boat. “We were really glad that Princeton and Stanford still made it out there, and BU was willing to come up and race as well, but we didn’t have a normal week of practices so the girls had to all be flexible and adapt to things. We had some lineups changing around as everything was going on, so I think it reflected well on us that we managed to pull it together given how tough a week everyone had.”

The second varsity eights started the racing on the river, with Radcliffe toughing out heavy winds to best the Tigers and Stanford by eight seconds. The novice fours followed in the sole race that the Black and White lost. BU, a new lightweight program, took the victory, passing the line 17 seconds before two Radcliffe crews.

In the first varsity eights race, the Black and White extended an eight-seat lead after 500 meters and didn’t look back, rowing the course in 7:05.7, six seconds faster than the Cardinal.

“It feels phenomenal [to top Stanford],” Lukasiewicz said. “It’s really exciting. Stanford’s always really good, they’re a really strong program, and just to be up on them and keep them behind us was really thrilling.”

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samanthalin@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @linsamnity.