Yale Nips Radcliffe Crew In Last Race Before Sprints

So close it hurt. Radcliffe rowed another great race but Yale slipped ahead at the finish in a frustrating showdown Saturday on the Charles.

The Eli crew, a perennial powerhouse, jumped ahead by six seats just after the start and held its lead through the first 500 meters.

But the exhortations of coxswain Virginia Newman, together with the fine-tuned timing of the Black and White, moved Radcliffe through the opposition into a two-seat lead at the 1000 meter mark. It appeared the host boat was on its way to a victory when the Yalies started a final rally that inched them up to Radcliffe. The two boats see-sawed through the final 500 meters until Yale exploded in the final 10 strokes for the win. The disheartened Black and White trailed the Elis by 4 seconds at 5:44.4.

Heartbreaker

"It was a real heartbreaker," said Captain Liz Reid, "but it was still an improvement over last week." She added that the timing, quickness and endurance had stepped up since the loss to Dartmouth. Since fourth-ranked Yale only managed to squeak by. Radcliffe's ranking for the eastern sprints will advance a few notches up from ninth. The team plans to channel its frustration from the last two losses into power drills and timing exercises in preparation for the Eastern Sprints set for May 15 in Connecticut.

"I think we're gonna shock a few people in the Sprints," Newman commented. "We haven't reached our peak yet." She added that Dartmouth notoriously peaks before the sprint competition.

Yesterday morning, the varsity light-weights rowed through 500 meters of a choppy Charles into open water ahead of the University of Rhode Island and Northeastern to lengthen their winning streak.

Adjusting to a change in stroke and some earlier problems with a high cadence wasn't too much of an effort for the lightweights, whose victory was their last race before the Sprints.