Parker entered the day with diminished expectations, primarily looking to increase his rowers’ experience.

“It’s very early in the training cycle for us,” Parker said. “It’s early in the year, so we’re really not ready to race and we don’t put a heavy emphasis on trying to win any particular event.”

Parker took sixth in the Men’s Veteran Single. Parker began the race strong, only a few seconds off the lead, but eventually dropped back after failing to maintain his pace.

Radcliffe

Though the rowing season is still young, the Radcliffe lightweight crew accomplished yesterday what it could not all of last season—beating both Princeton and Wisconsin.

The three lightweight powerhouses have been locked in a battle for the pinnacle of the women’s crew scene, the Black and White have almost always been left black and blue after taking on its two archrivals.

Last year, Radcliffe could muster only a single victory over national champion Princeton and was defeated by Wisconsin on every occasion.

At the Head of the Charles, the Black and White finished second only to the Riverside Boat Club, that dominated the race from start to finish, building an early seven-second lead and stretching it to a winning distance of 25 seconds.

Radcliffe battled its way up from the fourth seed and out of a tightly knit pack of four boats. Princeton got out to a fast start after being relegating to the seventh bow number due to a poor finish last year. However, the Tigers placed only third while the Badgers turned in a fourth-place performance.

In the Lightweight Fours, the Black and White started sixth, but once again trailed by nearly 30 seconds at the end of the first leg. The team spent much of its time moving up and down between sixth and eighth place before finally settling into eighth, nearly 90 seconds off the lead.

In the Women’s Championship Eight, Radcliffe’s two heavyweight entries performed better than expected, but still finished well behind the leaders. The U.S. national team took first while London Training Center took second, followed by Yale.

The Black and White “A” boat, beginning 23rd, maintained a pace 12 seconds slower than that of eventual victors U.S. rowing. The crew finished 48 seconds behind for eleventh place.

Radcliffe’s “B” entry started 36th and fell quickly off the pace. Twenty-five seconds behind after the first leg, the crew finished in 23rd place, nearly a minute and a half out of first place.

The Radcliffe heavyweights entered a novice boat in the Youth Eight, which, like many of the Harvard boats, fell behind quickly and was never a major factor in the outcome of the race.

Ranked second, the Black and White fell 25 seconds off the lead by the end of the first leg, a deficit which grew to just over 60 seconds by race’s end, placing the Black and White in a disappointing 15th place.