The Radcliffe varsity lightweight crew, buoyed by key personnel changes and a new seat order, took advantage of fine racing conditions to cruise past Williams and Cornell by a length Saturday at Dartmouth as the crew warmed up for next week's Eastern Sprint championships.

Rebounding from last week's defeat at the hands of Boston University, the lights came back, aided by a tailwind and a strong downstream current, to cross the finish line in a strong 5:22.0, a convincing 5.4 seconds before Williams, their closest competitor.

New Focus

Despite the decisive win, the big story was the late season lineup changes made before Saturday's race. After a week of seat racing, coach Peter Huntsman brought up Sarah Gallup. Ellen Roy and Cathy Vance from the J.V. to strengthen his varsity boat.

"The seat racing was productive," captain Susie Peterson, the cox, said. "The people he brought up were productive because their enthusiasm fired up everybody else for the race," she added.

In addition, Huntsman changed the rigging of the boat, switching from a starboard to a port stroke, and thus elevating Kathy Kirk to stroke from her seven seat position.

Heavy Lights

As it turned out, the substitutions proved to be just what the doctor ordered, as the Radcliffe boat benefitted from the extra power. "We picked up a lot of speed, with the addition of those girls," Kirk said.

"The girls we picked up were heavier and brought us closer than ever to the 125-lb. average we are supposed to be at," Peterson said. "With a tail wind like we had, being heavier is a definite advantage in the water," she said, nothing that the Williams boat was much lighter than her own crew.

Williams, however, proved the toughest competition of the afternoon as a recently organized Cornell crew was never a threat.

The Radcliffe boat jumped out to a quick three seat lead at the start and continued to increase the bulge, taking advantage of a high (41-stroke) cadence set by Peterson during the first 500 meters of the course.

The lights matched a power ten called by Williams at the 500-meter mark, and then settled to a still quick 38-39 cadence for most of the rest of the race.

Touche

Radcliffe successfully parried Williams' second power ten as Peterson called for one of her own and the Crimson pulled out to a length lead that it never relinquished.

Taking no chances, the lights sprinted the last 200 meters to reach open water and squelch any Williams or Cornell hopes for a comeback.

The newfound strength comes none too late, as the lights begin preparation for the Eastern Championships next week. "This was a satisfying race for us," Kirk said, "but at the moment B.U. is the team to beat at the sprints. We might be able to beat them with a little luck."