W. Heavyweight Crew Cruises to O’Leary Cup Win

Racing conditions on Saturday in Cambridge weren’t exactly ideal—a mediocre high of 51 degrees with a brisk wind. Luckily, the Radcliffe women’s heavyweight crew was enjoying a road trip to a much more temperate climate, and took full advantage of the impeccable Syracuse weather conditions to retain the O’Leary Cup with open-water victories over Dartmouth and Syracuse on Saturday at Onondaga Lake.

Entering the weekend’s competition ranked fifth, the Black and White varsity eight completed the course in 6:24.4, almost three lengths ahead of the second-place Orange, which entered the race ranked No. 16 and clocked in at 6:35.3 for its most lopsided loss of the season. The Big Green came in last, finishing over twenty seconds out of first in a time of 6:44.7.

Radcliffe held its commanding lead throughout the entire race, starting strong on the calm, nearly motionless water and maintaining its lead for all 2,000 meters of the course. The weather—69 degrees with only a slight breeze—proved to be one of the Black and White’s greatest assets in the race.

“The water was really nice, it was really flat, and I think we made a lot of technical changes and did a lot of work,” said captain and two-seat Heather Schonfield. “It went really well, the first-varsity, the second-varsity, and the four all had fairly good races.”

The victory marked the fourth straight season that Radcliffe has won the O’Leary Cup, a streak the Black and White was more than happy to keep alive, as the O’Leary Cup is named for Radcliffe coach Liz O’Leary and therefore represents something of a special prize.

“I think it’s especially nice since it is named after our coach,” said Schonfield, who was a freshman on the Black and White squad when Radcliffe’s O’Leary winning streak began. “It’s great to have the Radcliffe name associated with that cup. It’s been nice to have that in Radcliffe hands for a while.”

As dominating as the varsity eight’s performance was, the second varsity crew won by an even wider margin, finishing in an impressive 6:39.6 and beating second-place Syracuse by almost fifteen seconds, with Dartmouth trailing by over twenty.

The second string’s effort earned them victory in only fifteen seconds more than the Black and White first-varsity squad had taken, and even beat the Big Green’s varsity eight time.

“It was really wonderful,” Schonfield said. “They’ve had some pretty good practices leading into this week, and then the race was really a great reward for the effort they put in.”

Radcliffe also won both fours races by similarly wide margins. The only race in which the Black and White did not emerge victorious was the novice eight, where Dartmouth claimed first place and Radcliffe had to settle for second, ahead of the Orange.

The heavyweight crew will return home to familiar waters next Saturday, hosting the Case Cup on the Charles against Yale and Notre Dame.