Women's Crew Fights Weather in Battles Against Brown, Georgetown

The Radcliffe heavyweight crew team found out the hard way that it was a tough weekend to row in Cambridge. Harsh winds and chilly temperatures created challenging conditions for the Black and White heavyweights, which opened up their Ivy season by taking on Brown on the Charles on Saturday morning.

“It was cold—but we’re sort of used to that in the spring—but the biggest challenge out there was the wind,” heavyweight’s coach Liz O’Leary said. “It was very gusty and it was kind of a quartering headwind, which means it’s blowing right at you. It was gusty and pretty strong, and that sort of churned up the basin down there on the race course, so it makes the conditions tough.”

While the heavyweights were battling it out with the Bears at home, their lightweight counterparts took a trip south to the Potomac River in Washington D.C. and were greeted by nicer weather and a pair of victories.

“We were actually pretty lucky. We had quite flat conditions and warmer weather than Cambridge, which was nice,” said Emma Lukasiewicz, the six seat on the 1V lightweight boat. “[There was] a bit of a tailwind, which is kind of a change-up because we usually have a headwind on the Charles. We just had to adjust to those conditions, but it meant fast racing, which is always really fun.”

HEAVYWEIGHTS

In its third race of the spring season, Brown came away with victories in three out of four races. The Bears took advantage of their experience on the water, benefiting from the postponement of the Beanpot, which made this race Radcliffe’s first of the spring season.

“Sure, it helps to have had a race,” O’Leary said. “That’s one of the things we love about the Beanpot—it’s a good way to race a handful of schools who are all in the same sort of environment as we are and so it was really too bad [that it was postponed]. It would have been helpful to have had a race prior to this one, but that’s the way it goes, so you have to sort of make the best of the time you have.”

The Black and White’s second varsity eight tallied Radcliffe’s lone victory of the day, rowing the two-kilometer course in 7:27.7, besting Brown’s 2V boat by a little over three seconds.

The varsity fours races started off the day on the river, with the Black and White capturing second and third out of four crews. The Bears’ top fours boat crossed the finish line seven seconds ahead of Radcliffe’s A boat with a time of 7:52.1.

The 1V and 3V races rounded out the day, as Brown’s top eights boat edged the Black and White by two seconds. The 3V found itself in second place as well, coming in eight seconds behind the Bears, finishing the course in 7:58.2.

After the races, O’Leary remains confident in the team’s progress.

“It was great for us to go up against a team like Brown to see initially where we stand,” O’Leary said. “I got out of it feeling optimistic. We have some specific parts of the race that we can do better, that we can work on, but overall I think all of our boats did a good job. It’s still relatively early in the season, so hopefully we can put our heads down and go to work and see where we stand next weekend.”

LIGHTWEIGHTS

The Radcliffe lightweights continued their undefeated streak after cruising through the Beanpot last week. In both races, the Black and White handily defeated its opponents with victory margins in the double digits.

“We won our dual race against them last year, but definitely don’t underestimate anyone, and we know that Georgetown typically has a fast start,” Lukasiewicz said. “They did really well at sprints last year with a fast start, so one of our things was to try to not let them get ahead of us in the beginning, and I think we did a good job with that.”

The varsity eight was first on the Potomac for Radcliffe. The crew opened up the race with a lead and extended it throughout the competition to row the two-kilometer race in 6:32.5, over 20 seconds faster than the Hoyas.

“We had a good start, a good first 500,” Lukasiewicz said. “I think we were a length’s up by the first 500, and then we just sort of executed our own race plan and tried to keep gaining some more distance as we went down the course and finished with a good time and a good margin, so I think we were pleased.”

The second varsity four competed in the only other race of the day and pulled out a similar finish, besting Georgetown’s boat by more than 15 seconds.

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samanthalin@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @linsamnity.