Radcliffe Heavies' 2003 Title Season Not Repeated

How does a team follow something like that?

How can you beat a 9-1 regular season, an Eastern Sprints championship and an NCAA championship?

What can your team do to make its own name, mold its personality?

These were the questions that the Radcliffe heavyweight crew was asking itself all year long, and could never quite answer, as it finished its season a disappointing 10th place at the NCAAs.

“I think we spent this whole year struggling to find an identity,” co-captain Lis Lambert said. “It’s way more challenging than you’d think, ending a year on a climactic high note, leaving for the summer, and then coming back again to start over at square one.”

Focusing on goals and looking to the future seemed a twin-headed spectre that did not cease spooking the Black and White.

“There’s also the challenge of figuring out what the goals should be,” Lambert said. “You’ve just been at the top, so you want to be at the top again—you don’t want to settle for less.”

Unfortunately, in order to do something different from last year’s near-perfect squad, the only thing the 2003-2004 edition could do was lose.

Radcliffe opened the season ranked No. 5 and on the Charles River against local rivals Boston College and Northeastern. The Black and White dominated in the warm-up, taking five of six races, including a three-length victory in the 1V race.

From the friendly home waters of the Charles, Radcliffe found a drastic change of scenery in its next race, on the choppy waters of the Seekonk River against then-No. 6 Brown.

The Black and White failed to win a single race, which were all—save the 1V race—contested as six-and-a-half minute pieces in the Pawtucket Channel. Both the 1V and 2V fell to the Bears by close margins, the 1V less than one second and the 2V by one seat.

Next up for Radcliffe were then-No. 3 Princeton and No. 13 Cornell. Again the 1V fell to a top-tier crew in a tight race, this time by 2.8 seconds to the Tigers. Across the board, the 2V was the only Black and White boat that pulled out a win, besting Princeton by six seconds.

At the time, Lambert said of the 2V, “They’re the force that’s driving the team right now. Our 1V is in contention to be at the top, but the 2V is there.”

Before entering the fray with another heavyweight powerhouse, Radcliffe was granted a breather of sorts the following week against Dartmouth and then-No. 18 Syracuse on the Charles. The Black and White again took five of six races to retain the O’Leary Cup, named for head coach Liz O’Leary. The 1V had no problems on this day, as it dispatched the Orangewomen by better than nine seconds and the Big Green by almost 17 ticks.

At then-No. 9 Yale, Radcliffe suffered its worst defeat yet. Trailing from the staggered-start, the 1V could never make up the open water and fell by just under five seconds. Another tough opponent, another second place finish.

“While we tried hard to avoid comparisons with last year, I think that part of what made those races so hard, and the losses so hard to swallow, was the constant, almost subconscious sense of having enormous shoes to fill,” Lambert said.

Following the sizeable loss to the Bulldogs, the 1V received a lineup shakeup. Junior Gretchen Weingarth was brought up from the 2V stroke position to the 1V spot, and former stroke co-captain Stef Levner was moved to the five seat. Lambert remained in the six seat, and senior Caroline Fisher and junior Mollie Durkin were moved into the fourth and third seats, respectively.

With a new lineup, the Black and White had a new life. Radcliffe steamrolled through then-No. 18 Boston University and MIT and looked prime to make a run at defending its Eastern Sprint title.

“The seat racing and the lineup changes were really good for us because they kept us from getting complacent,” Lambert said. “Everyone in the top boat got raced so every one knew that she deserved to be there.”

Make a run the Black and White did, as the 1V finally put its pieces together and stroked its race. Radcliffe revenged its losses to the Bulldogs and the Bears, falling only to the Tigers in the Grand Final.

“The high point of the season was definitely Sprints, which was the moment in the spring when we finally laid those doubting thoughts to rest,” Lambert said. “Racing at Sprints, I had a real sense that we had come together as a unique and unified group, with a shared commitment to goals that came from within.  We raced at Sprints to show what we, this year, this team, could do—and it felt good.”

The Black and White moved up to No. 4 in the last national poll and was again looking to make a run at defending its title at the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif.

“I think the key is execution,” senior 2V seven-seat Megan Smith said. “We have all the necessary pieces, we just need to perform start to finish consistently in the heats and the finals.”The team title would come down to the performance of three boats—the 1V, 2V, and V4—but their performance would depend on much more.

“We’re a team that pushes from all directions,” junior V4 stroke Meredith Coogan said. “The speed of the top boats is from not only their own talent, but the pressure from all around, including the novices and those not competing at the NCAAs.”

However, the Black and White were not able to qualify a single boat for the Grand Finals, and came in 10th place overall. The 1V came in second in its Petite Final, the 2V third in its final and the V4 sixth.

“By external standards,” Lambert said, “this year may not have the same glorious flourish as last year, but in terms of personal growth and learning, I’ve accomplished a lot and the team has accomplished a lot.”

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.