Mixed Results for Radcliffe Boats

With the heavyweights visiting Princeton for an Ivy-filled regatta on Lake Carnegie and the lightweights defending home water on the Charles, both Black and White crews faced a series of familiar foes this past weekend.

The No. 11 Radcliffe heavyweights squared off against Ivy rivals No. 6 Princeton, No. 16 Cornell, and Columbia in the Class of 1975 regatta and won one of their three races, while the lightweights topped Georgetown to win the Class of 2004 Cup.

NO. 11 HEAVYWEIGHTS vs.

NO. 6 PRINCETON, NO. 16 CORNELL, COLUMBIA

In the 36th annual Class of 1975 regatta, the Black and White heavyweights faced three Ivy rivals and finished with one victory and two second-place finishes on Saturday.

In the 1V race, host Princeton launched off from the starting line to gain an early lead in the first 500 meters of the race, with Radcliffe also starting off strong to move into second place.

By the race’s halfway point, Cornell and Columbia had both closed the gap with the Black and White to create a heated battle for second place, while the Tigers remained firmly in control of the race in first place. With 500 meters left in the race, the Lions had moved into second place, while Radcliffe and the Big Red dueled for third place. In the final meters of the event, the Black and White were able to surge past Cornell to finish in third with a time of 7:20.

“Probably the most exciting part of our race was our sprint,” senior heavyweight rower Liz Soutter said. “We had a really strong sprint to the finish, so we managed to edge our bow to third place, which was really nice. It’s always good to beat out another boat right in the finish of a race and to see those moves become really effective.”

The Big Red finished a half-second behind with a time of 7:20.9. Columbia took second, five seconds behind first-place Princeton.

The Radcliffe 2V and varsity four A both finished second to Princeton with times of 7:20.4 and 8:10.1, respectively. The Black and White varsity four B surged past the field to record a nine-second victory over second-place Cornell in a time of 8:30.6.

“Every weekend, especially at this point of the season, we are learning a lot from every race,” Soutter said. “So I think that every boat figured out what it needs to work on for next weekend, which is always a good thing to go into a week’s worth of training knowing exactly what needs to be accomplished.”

NO. 4 LIGHTWEIGHTS vs. NO. 5 GEORGETOWN

In its first test of the dual meet season, the fourth-ranked lightweight squad faced off against No. 5 Georgetown on Saturday in what had been billed as a tough matchup against two equally strong lightweight programs.

But what transpired on the Charles River stood contrary to early predictions, as the Black and White lightweights stormed away to two easy victories against the Hoyas in the 1V and 2V races to record a sweep for the day.

With their final strokes in the water, the Radcliffe lightweights earned an important victory against a nationally ranked rival and their first trophy of the season, the Class of 2004 Cup.

In the 1V race, Radcliffe quickly established a fast-paced rhythm and pulled away early from Georgetown. After capturing a boat-length lead in the first 500 meters of the race, the Black and White never looked back, and its furious pace throughout the race powered the varsity crew to victory. By the race’s end, the Radcliffe 1V had extended its lead over the Hoyas to more than 11 seconds to finish with a time of 7:10.45, while Georgetown finished with a time of 7:21.80.

In the 2V race, the Black and White fielded two boats—the 2V and the novice eight—against the Georgetown 2V. The Radcliffe 2V recorded a time of 7:30.89 to beat the Hoyas 2V by a 13-second margin.

For the first 1,000 meters of the 2V race, the novices kept pace with the Hoyas but ultimately could not hold on in the final 500 meters of the race, as the Georgetown 2V opened up a gap against the novices. The Black and White novices ultimately finished in 7:48.04, four seconds after the Hoyas 2V.

“Our 2V did great against Georgetown, but the highlight of the day for us was our novice eight performance,” said junior lightweight rower Emma Lukasiewicz. “They really held their own against the Georgetown 2V, who had some experienced athletes versus our athletes who had just begun in the fall. Their performance really speaks to the depth of our team.”

—Staff writer Oluwatoni A. Campbell can be reached at oluwatoni.campbell@college.harvard.edu.