Radcliffe Heavies Upset Princeton; Lights Come Back to Snag Winant Cup

It took less than five minutes, but that's all the Radcliffe varsity heavyweight crew needed to pull off an early season coup

The nation's fifth ranked team the Radcliffe eight easily disposed of fourth ranked Princeton Saturday on the Charles outdistancing the visiting Tigers by more than eight seconds

Led by cox Rachel Miller and stroke Rosemary Pugh Radcliffe used a strong tail wind to turn in a very quick 4 54 44 Princeton strolled in at 5 02 47, while Cornell finished a distant third in 5 10 27

But it was the victory over highly routed Princeton that upped Radcliffe's record to 3-0 and significantly upped the oarswomen's billing as one the nation's top teams.

In Saturday's other featured race the Radcliffe varsity lightweight eight came from seven seats down to edge a visiting University of Pennsylvania squad by just over one second

The victory earned the lights the first-ever Winant Cup, the award that will go to the winner of the annual Radcliffe Penn light weight showdown

No closer than four seat lengths until just 50 meters remained in the 1500 meter contest, the Black and White lightweights sprinted in the final 20 strokes to eke out the narrowest of victories, 5 12 46 to 5 13 49

"We figured to be behind for most of the way," lightweight cox Helen Lee said, explaining that Radcliffe's race plan called for allowing Penn to forget ahead.

"But we never gave up," she added "We did exactly what we wanted"

In the day's other races, the Radcliffe varsity heavyweight four led by freshman cox Jennifer Schwartz easily outdistanced Cornell 6 08 46 to 6 45 48 The win evened that boat's record at 1-1

Meanwhile, the j v heavyweight finished third, well behind champion Princeton and second place Cornell

Radcliffe fielded two boats in the varsity lightweight four, but couldn't manage better than a second and third

And in a novice action Princeton beat Radcliffe by eight seconds in the firstboat action and did the same in the secondboat heat

The heavies and lights will return to action next Saturday against Smith and Wellesley