Lightweights Continue Winning Ways; Heavyweights Surprise Nation

1996

Sports Statistics

Record: Heavies: 6-5, 1-6 Regattal Lights: 8-0, 6-0 Regatta

Coach: Heavies: Liz O'Leary; Lights: Aubrey Borland

1997

It has been another stellar year for the two Radcliffe Crew teams, but in markedly different ways.

The lightweights appear to be on their way to being labeled a "dynasty" while the heavyweights continued to show improvement and capped their season with a wild-card bid to the inaugural heavyweight national championships.

Lightweights

As the defending national champions, the Black and White had a lot to live up to this season. Every benchmark has been passed heading into next weekend's national championships in Camden, New Jersey.

The spring season started with an early race against Northeastern's heavyweights that would begin Radcliffe's undefeated regular season. The Black and White dominated by eight seconds.

The next step was to head out to the San Diego Classic where Radcliffe would get its first look at archrival Villanova. This was the first real test of the season, and Radcliffe passed with flying colors.

The Black and White crossed the finish line in 7:32.88, well ahead of the Wildcats at 7:39.44. The rest of the seven-boat field was never in contention.

'Nova was ready for revenge as Radcliffe and UMass traveled to Philadelphia the next weekend. However the Wildcats again proved no match for the Black and White.

This time Radcliffe posted a slightly more impressive 7.2-second win--equivalent to a two boatlength margin--over Villanova. This was supposed to be the big challenge, but it proved to be a one-sided rivalry.

The next week saw the Radcliffe fours posting victories over the Dartmouth and Syracuse heavies. The eights continued their dominance as Virginia and Massachusetts fell in the next two weeks by seven and nine-second margins respectively.

This set the stage for the Eastern Sprints on May 18. Radcliffe ran away with the title, with Virginia--vanquished again--placing second. The 4.7-second margin of victory, equivalent to about a boatlength, was the Black and White's smallest of the season heading into the national championships.

Domination anyone?

More impressive may be the fact that there are only two seniors--captain Layla Adolphson and Liz Yellen--and one junior--Amy Mecklenburg--in the first boat. This is a youth-dominated squad, which bodes well for the next several years. With Radcliffe dominated by underclassmen and still the favorites for a second-straight national title, an era of domination may be beginning.

Heavyweights

The season was different for the Radcliffe heavyweights. This was a team that was coming off a ninth-place finish at Sprints in 1995 and an eleventh-place finish last year. Things looked to be headed in the opposite direction from what the team hoped.

However, this was a year of marked improvement for the Black and White, with the highlight occurring at Sprints.

Radcliffe entered Sprints with wins over MIT, Cornell, Syracuse, Yale, Rutgers and B.U. but was clearly a step behind the real powers in the sport. Princeton and Brown had dominated Radcliffe, posting double-digit margins of victory.

However, the Black and White seemed entrenched in the second tier along with Dartmouth, Syracuse and Rutgers. Dartmouth had narrowly edged Harvard earlier in the season 5:38.5 to 5:40.6.5.

The Black and White finished in the middle of that second tier at Sprints. Radcliffe's time of 6:43.8 was fourth behind Princeton (6:28.6), Brown (6:29.7) and Dartmouth (6:38.6). Its time did edge Syracuse (6:44.7) and Rutgers (6:45.3).

While this seems unimpressive to the untrained eye, it was Radcliffe's best showing since finishing fourth in 1994's Sprints and was good enough to earn the boat a berth in the first-ever NCAA Women's Crew Championships this past weekend at Sacramento State.

Importantly, there seems to be a youth movement with the heavyweights as well.

The most successful boats were the first and second novice boats that both went undefeated (13-0 and 9-0 respectively) and placed first at Easterns.

Things seem to be turning around and the next couple of seasons may find Radcliffe heavyweight crew back in the upper echelon.