Radcliffe Tunes Up for Sprints With Win Over MIT

With the biggest race of the season looming a week away, Radcliffe could have easily looked past MIT on Saturday and stumbled.

Lucky for the Black and White, the squad hit the race running and never looked back.

In a dominating performance on the Charles the past weekend, the Radcliffe lightweight varsity four and novice eight boats notched important victories over the team’s Cambridge rival to reassert the Black and White’s momentum, which it had lost last week against Princeton.

“Those races were pretty inspiring for everybody,” lightweight co-captain Ashley Antony said. “It gives the team confidence that we know how to race, and we will give our best performance at Sprints.”

The highlight was the varsity four’s wire-to-wire victory over MIT, the same squad Radcliffe had lost to in the grand finals of the Knecht Cup. The turnaround was a spark for the squad to continue its success at Eastern Sprints.

“We were up off the start and we stayed up the whole race,” varsity-four senior Cindy Obst said. “It was a good race because it sets us up nicely for next weekend.”

It would have been easy for the team to let down, especially in a race against MIT, against whom they were favored. But on a day when the varsity eight’s race was cancelled, the varsity four and novice eight teams did not allow the letdown to happen.

The squads took the lead, pushing the Black and White forward for next weekend’s Eastern Sprints.

“The race the novice eight and varsity four had,” Antony said, “definitely is moving our team in the right direction coming off last weekend’s loss.”

Following Saturday’s regattas, the team will now look to maximize its speed in practices this week. As a result of the novice eight and varsity four’s success, the boats will likely remain unchanged going into Eastern Sprints.

If any move comes at all, the team could possibly promote one or two members from the novice four, which posted a solid race to finish third on Saturday, to the novice eight.

The focus this week will likely not be on combination changes but on simply getting the most speed possible for next weekend. And the improved depth of the team, shown in the victories of the varsity four and novice eight on Saturday, should contribute.

“Practices this week will be focused on getting the best racing in, not on seat racing,” Antony said. “[But] the depth is still a motivating factor for us to give the team more speed on the river.”

Although at Eastern Sprints the team’s focus is on attaining the Eastern Sprints’ Lightweight Eight Cup, success at the varsity four, novice eight, or novice four levels will likely motivate the team even more.

What the squads added on Saturday, they will hope to transfer to Sprints next weekend.

“[The varsity four] has gained speed since we raced MIT in the Knecht Cup,” Obst said. “We know that we are going into Sprints the fastest possible and the results show it.”

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.