W. Crew Opens With Hoyas

Last year, it was a season of highs and lows for the Radcliffe lightweights.

The Black and White began its campaign with a thorough thumping of Georgetown on the Charles River, winning by over eleven seconds.

The following weekend, Radcliffe posted a dominating victory over rivals Wisconsin, Princeton, and the Hoyas at the Knecht Cup.

But as the season progressed, the competition strengthened, and by the time the IRA National Championships began, the Black and White had been overtaken.

It was not surprising to see the Badgers pull in front of Radcliffe, as the now two-time defending national championships have proven time and again its postseason fortitude.

But seeing Georgetown surpass the Black and White and move into silver-medal position on during the IRA’s last year seemed, in many ways, to be a shocker.

But the Hoyas are a team on the rise, so this weekend will be the toughest of challenges for the Black and White as they start the season.

“I think Georgetown has always been a contender,” sophomore Rebekah Kharrazi said. “They’re coming out strong with five from last year, so that can mean a lot of different things—basically, we want to go out there and row the best we can—and, of course we want to win.”

The Radliffe lightweights will look to avenge this late-season turn-for-the-worse in the coming weekend against those very Hoyas.

Next Saturday, the Black and White will travel to Georgetown for the first meet of its young season, and, more importantly, for its first chance at redemption.

Having failed to win an IRA national championship over the past ten years, defeats such as the ones incurred at the hands of the Hoyas and Wisconsin last year are striking setbacks.

But these challenges motivate the squad, and, with the spring season about to begin, the team is ready.

Although the crew which faces Georgetown next Saturday will look very different, as captains Sarah Bates ’06 and Ashley Antony ’06 have departed, the crew will still have the same drive to succeed—and the talent to do just that.

The only thing not falling into line, for the lightweights and heavyweights alike: Boston. Specifically, the horrendous weather has prevented the crews from rowing on the Charles anytime before just last week.

“The winter has dragged on and on and we got on the water pretty late,” Kharrazi said. “At this point, we have no idea what to expect—we’ve spent a lot of times indoors to train, but it will be a thing looking at the long term this weekend.”

But the squad has made up for this with extensive off-season training. Although the conditions are not perfect, the squad will still continue to work for the top.

“As much as we want to be on the water, we have been gaining a lot of strength on the erg over the winter,” senior captain Jennifer Chung said. “We’re going in with a fresh perspective and we’ll have a full week of spring training coming up, so we’re all going in with high expectations.”

As for the heavyweights, last season was historic for all the wrong reasons—the squad failed to make the NCAA Championships for the first time in nine years.

But that team was young. This team is more experienced. As seen in placing sixth in the top 40 at Crash B Sprints over the winter, the team is succeeding.

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