"We took every stroke as if it were the strokethat would make us win, and we rowed throughthem," seven seat Tina Holt said.

Radcliffe continued to widen the gap in thesecond half of the race, and finished almost twoboat lengths ahead of BU.

"They look like a good, tough crew," O'Learysaid. "They are eight strong people who rowtogether, and it's really exciting to see thathappen. That's what a good crew should be."

The novice crews also faced BU Saturday, andthe first novice boat dropped a tough contest tothe Terriers, losing by a little less that fiveseconds.

Dominance

The second novice boat unseated BU's top-rankedsecond boat from its number-one position in theEast, winning by a little under six seconds. TheRadcliffe third boat bested Rutgers by almost fourseconds, and its own fourth boat by five.

THE NOTEBOOK: Sue Porter stroked the JVas heavyweight Captain Debbie Porterfield movedback into the varsity shell after being out forthe majority of the season with a backinjury...The lightweights scrimmaged against theBoston Rowing Club this past Saturday inpreparation for the Sprints. The lightweight eightstayed even with an, eight that included thevarsity light four and four national team rowers