This set the stage for the Eastern Sprints on May 18. Radcliffe ran away with the title, with Virginia--vanquished again--placing second. The 4.7-second margin of victory, equivalent to about a boatlength, was the Black and White's smallest of the season heading into the national championships.

Domination anyone?

More impressive may be the fact that there are only two seniors--captain Layla Adolphson and Liz Yellen--and one junior--Amy Mecklenburg--in the first boat. This is a youth-dominated squad, which bodes well for the next several years. With Radcliffe dominated by underclassmen and still the favorites for a second-straight national title, an era of domination may be beginning.

Heavyweights

The season was different for the Radcliffe heavyweights. This was a team that was coming off a ninth-place finish at Sprints in 1995 and an eleventh-place finish last year. Things looked to be headed in the opposite direction from what the team hoped.

However, this was a year of marked improvement for the Black and White, with the highlight occurring at Sprints.

Radcliffe entered Sprints with wins over MIT, Cornell, Syracuse, Yale, Rutgers and B.U. but was clearly a step behind the real powers in the sport. Princeton and Brown had dominated Radcliffe, posting double-digit margins of victory.

However, the Black and White seemed entrenched in the second tier along with Dartmouth, Syracuse and Rutgers. Dartmouth had narrowly edged Harvard earlier in the season 5:38.5 to 5:40.6.5.

The Black and White finished in the middle of that second tier at Sprints. Radcliffe's time of 6:43.8 was fourth behind Princeton (6:28.6), Brown (6:29.7) and Dartmouth (6:38.6). Its time did edge Syracuse (6:44.7) and Rutgers (6:45.3).

While this seems unimpressive to the untrained eye, it was Radcliffe's best showing since finishing fourth in 1994's Sprints and was good enough to earn the boat a berth in the first-ever NCAA Women's Crew Championships this past weekend at Sacramento State.

Importantly, there seems to be a youth movement with the heavyweights as well.

The most successful boats were the first and second novice boats that both went undefeated (13-0 and 9-0 respectively) and placed first at Easterns.

Things seem to be turning around and the next couple of seasons may find Radcliffe heavyweight crew back in the upper echelon.