W. Heavies Win Overall Easterns For First Time in Program History

Suddenly, that one loss on the Radcliffe heavyweight crew’s schedule doesn’t seem so important.

The Black and White dethroned five-time defending Eastern Association of Women’s Racing Colleges (EAWRC) Sprints champion Brown, exacting revenge upon the Bears for their 2.7 second dual meet victory earlier in the season.

“It was unbelievable,” junior Sarah Clark said. “Brown always comes into these events expecting to win. To watch that dynasty crumble and be a part of that was incredible.”

Radcliffe’s defeat at Brown’s hands on April 27 came one day after the Black and White squared off against Yale and Virginia, while the Bears had not raced since the previous weekend. This time, Brown had two weeks’ worth of rest to Radcliffe’s one.

“It’s hard to race two schools back to back, Yale and Brown that are top crews in the league and the country,” co-captain Courtney Brown said.

The victory for Radcliffe is the first since 1989—its fifth overall—and secures both a national championship berth and an invitation to the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta this July, offering the opportunity to compete against an elite international field on the River Thames.

“We haven’t considered going to Henley,” coach Liz O’Leary said. “Our focus at this point will be on the national championship. Henley is not in the picture at this point.”

But the victory for the varsity eights was not the only triumph for the Black and White on the day.

For the first time in the crew’s history, the heavies captured the Willing Point Trophy—awarded for cumulative success in varsity and second varsity eights, novice and second novice eights and varsity fours ‘A’.

It all made a nice birthday present for O’Leary.

“It’s tremendous to beat [Brown],” O’Leary said. “The way our league is—and not just the way the Ivy League is but also the way the Eastern Sprints are—its very competitive and a very deep league.”

Since the beginning of the season, winning the team trophy has been the crew’s primary objective, with a posting on the Weld Boathouse bulletin board reminding them with each practice of that goal as the opportunity to win drew ever closer.

“I think what’s most exciting is that this has been our biggest goal since we walked in the boathouse doors in September,” junior Sarah Clark said.

Radcliffe eked out the team victory over Brown, propelling itself just a single point ahead of the Bears with its commanding victory in the varsity eights, overcoming Brown’s victories in the second varsity and first novice events.

“We didn’t realize before that we were so close,” Brown said. “But we knew that if we won that race we were in contention.”

Princeton rushed ahead of the pack early with a strong, clean start, leading the race for the first 1000 meters and opening up nearly a full boat length advantage, while the Bears and Black and White jockeyed for position as trailer.

“Princeton is known for having a fast start,” Brown said. “We were expecting that. It was sort of what happened in our dual race.”

At the midway point, however, Radcliffe shifted into another gear and made its move, losing Brown with a quick burst of speed before pouncing on the Tigers.

Within 200 meters of its additional push, the White and Black had firmly grabbed hold of the momentum and the lead would soon follow.

“We were ahead of Princeton and our coxswain was just like, ‘You are in first place right now!’” Brown said. “We all latched on and would not let go.”

Unimpeded by the headwind, Radcliffe slowly pulled away and left Princeton in its wake.

“They controlled the middle of the race,” O’Leary said. “They have a very strong base cadence, base rhythm. It was very effective. You can be fast off the line, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win the race. If you have a really strong body of the race, you stand a good chance to win it. And that’s what we’ve been focusing on the last half of the season—building our base speed. The second and third 500 was where they won. They didn’t allow Brown to come back into them and were at the same time able to reel Princeton back in.”

The Black and White established open water between itself and the Tigers just 400 meters later. Racing only against itself, the Black and White continued to extend the margin, crossing the line in 6:43.80—one and a half lengths and 4.4 seconds ahead of Princeton, with the befuddled Bears lagging even further behind.

Bringing up the rear were the Bulldogs, surprise qualifier Boston University and Syracuse.

Apart from the varsity eights, Radcliffe turned in consistently solid performances across the board, qualifying all but one of its boats for the Grand Finals, racking up points in each of the five point-scoring categories with top-five finishes, though only one victory.

That depth gave the Black and White its final one-point edge.

“The fact that we had such a deep novice squad…greatly contributed to our winning the team trophy,” novice coach Cory Bosworth said. “A lot of schools did not have that depth, and that both of our [novice] crews made the grand final is not easy at all. To make the top six boats makes a huge difference.”

The second novice earned six points for its fourth-place finish while the Bears, unable to field an additional freshman boat, could only sit idly by.

And as the cheers for Radcliffe reached their deafening crescendo on the dockside, that’s all Brown could do yet again—sit idly by as O’Leary and others took a victory plunge into Cooper River.

The Black and White next heads to Indianapolis for the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championship on May 30.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.