Radcliffe Heavyweights Dominate Syracuse and Dartmotuh To Take O’Leary Cup

The Radcliffe heavyweight crew dominated from start to finish, taking five out of six races against No. 18 Syracuse and Dartmouth and securing the O’Leary Cup on the Charles River.

The cup is named after Radcliffe head coach Liz O’Leary, who is in her 19th year at the helm of the Black and White.

Getting out to a three-fourths of a length lead after the first 500 meters, the Radcliffe first varsity eight built that cushion to six seconds. Duking it out with the Big Green for second, the Orangewomen pulled ahead in the third 500 meters. But neither team was able to mount an effective comeback, and the Black and White took the race in 6:39.0, 9.3 seconds better than Syracuse (6:48.3) and 16.5 ticks faster than Dartmouth (6:55.5).

The second varsity eight (6:50.8) stayed hot and vanquished both its opponents by more than 10 seconds, topping the Orangewomen (7:01.2) by 10.4 seconds and the Big Green (7:01.9) by 11.1 seconds.

Securing a lead of nearly one length by the 500 meter marker, the Radcliffe first novice eight (6:53.1) held on to claim its first win of the year, besting Dartmouth (6:56.7) by better than three and a half seconds.

The Black and White also captured both varsity four events. The “A” boat (7:30.1) edged out Syracuse (7:30.5) and a boat of Radcliffe novices (7:31.0) by very close margins, and the Big Green (7:43.0) and MIT (8:21.2) by sizeable distances. The Black and White “B” boat (7:42.0) stroked to comfortable victories over both the Orangewomen (7:51.6) and Dartmouth (8:09.7).

Radcliffe’s only loss came in the second novice four race, where Dartmouth (7:47.8) edged out the Black and White “A” boat (7:51.6), Syracuse (7:52.9), the Radcliffe “B” boat (8:23.7) and the Engineers (8:40.7).

Next Saturday the Black and White will travel to New Haven and into the lion’s den to take on No. 9 Yale.