For the Radcliffe varsity heavyweight crew team, winning was not everything this past weekend in the Redwood Shores Invitational Regatta in Redwood Shores, Calif.

The Black and White Placed second in the round-robin style regatta, but more importantly it avenged last year's loss to Wisconsin in the finals of the national collegiate sprints.

"It was terrific," heavyweight Coach Liz O'Leary said. "The varsity was anxious to go against Wisconsin, because they had something to prove to themselves and the Wisconsin boat. The results weren't really what were important."

The Wisconsin heavies defeated the Black and White twice last year--in the Eastern Sprints and the nationals--capturing the championship by only four-hundredths of a second.

In this weekend's regatta, each crew rowed against three other crews in dual matches, and the crew with the best overall record at the end of the weekend won. Washington--as the only undefeated crew--placed first.

But victory and revenge belonged to Radcliffe on Saturday when the varsity eight rowed past Wisconsin in the final 500 meters and nabbed the win with a 7:05.2 time, 2.1 seconds ahead of the second-place Badgers (7:07.3).

"The Wisconsin victory was incredible," number-four sear Serena Eddy said. "When the cox called for us to move, our sprint was incredible. It was a years of bottled-up frustration. Every time we went into the locker room, we'd look at a picture of the Wisconsin crew team and try to figure out how to get back. It was sweet."

The Black and White also raced Washington on Friday (losing by three seconds) and Stanford on Saturday afternoon (destroying the Cardinal by a 15-second margin).

But these races didn't matter that much to the heavies--as long as they avenged Wisconsin.

And they did.

The race between Radcliffe and Wisconsin started off evenly, but by the 500-meter mark, the Badgers forged ahead by 1.2 seconds. Wisconsin increased its lead to four seconds at 1000 meters, about a boat length.

At the 1500-meter mark, however, the heavies began to mount a comeback, began to mount a comeback, chopping the Badgers's lead down to only 1.6 seconds.

Radcliffe turned on the power in the final 500 meters, and emerged as the victor in a close finish.

"It was a really great trip. I'm glad we did it," O'Leary said. "All the things I wanted to get out of it we got. I wanted close races and to take a look at what the best crews in the country did."