Dangerous Brown Awaits Radcliffe Heavyweight Crew

After a clean sweep over BC last weekend, the Radcliffe heavyweight crew faces its first test of the season against its most threatening foe tomorrow as Radcliffe races Brown on the Seekonk River in Providence, RI.

“It’s the fastest team we’re going to race in our dual races this spring,” sophomore stroke Caryn Davies said.

Radcliffe returns only three varsity rowers—captain Michelle Guerette, senior Raegan Kennedy and Davies—so inexperience rather than the earliness of the showdown may be the Black and White’s disadvantage.

“I don’t think it makes a difference either way because it’s early for them, too,” Davies said. “If we’re going to beat them, it might as well be now. We do have a pretty inexperienced crew, so we might improve more throughout the season than they do. In general, the crew this year is going to gain a lot of speed thoughtout the season.”

In the first USRowing/Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Polls of the season, released on Wednesday, Brown is ranked second, behind Washington, while Princeton and Radcliffe were ordered fourth and tenth respectively. The Bears turned heads last Saturday, when Brown blew out Princeton in both the Varsity and 2V events.

“That’s huge because Princeton is supposed to be the fastest crew this year,” Kennedy said.

Princeton returned all of the rowers from its varsity boat last year that placed second at Eastern Sprints, behind the Bears, while Brown replaced five of the varsity crew that won second at NCAAs. The Tigers had also dominated fall competition this year.

Yet, Brown won last Saturday’s race with surprising ease, though two of Princeton’s varsity rowers were absent due to injury. An early two-seat lead turned into four lengths as the Bears’ varsity won by 12 seconds. Brown’s 2V was also victorious, beating the Tigers by almost three seconds.

Last year, the Bears posted the third-fastest time ever by a women’s crew team on the Charles River with a time of 6:28.1. The two fastest times belong to Radcliffe and B.U., who pulled times of 6.17.5 and 6.26.9, respectively, two years ago. The Black and White finished second with 6:31.7 while Wisconsin followed in 6:41.4.

“[Brown is] just really consistent throughout the whole race,” Kennedy said. “They have a really strong second 500 and that’s where they go.”

Radcliffe took an early five-seat lead after 500 meters, but Brown walked through the Black and White boat to take a one-length lead at the 900-meter mark that the Bears held onto for the win. The victory marked Brown’s ninth straight victory over Radcliffe, but the 3.6-second margin of victory was the closest of the last nine meets.

“This is a really big race for the novices,” Kennedy said. “We’ve all raced [Brown] in the past. It’s always interesting for new freshmen to come in and see how fast they can pull together.”

The freshmen started their seasons well in last weekend’s meet with BC and the Radcliffe lightweights, with wins in the Varsity Four, Novice Eight and 2nd Novice Eight events. The varsity boat pulled a four-length victory over the Eagles while the 2V finished ahead of the Black and White lightweight boat and BC, setting a rhythm that Radcliffe hopes to carry into this weekend.

“I’d like to think that if we just keep our heads in our own boat and not worry about their boat, we can beat them,” Davies said. “In all honesty, I really have no idea. It’ll be interesting to see. I know we have a fast boat.”

The Harvard heavyweight crew is also on the road this weekend, travelling to Penn to race the Quakers and Navy for the Adams Cup tomorrow.

Last year, the Crimson garnered the cup at home, capitalizing on an early lead for a 1.7-second win over Penn, while Navy finished followed over 20 seconds later.

Harvard is ranked second in the USRowing Collegiate Coaches Men’s Eight Preseason Poll, behind Berkeley, while Penn is tied for ninth with Yale.