After a tough loss in horrid weather at No.2 Brown last weekend, No. 9 Radcliffe suffered a loss to No. 6 Princeton while picking up a nail-biter over Cornell. Saturday’s regatta was just one of two regattas that the Black and White hosts on the Charles River this year.

The first varsity competitors faced windy conditions that picked up about 15 minutes before the start, circumstances that didn’t help the Radcliffe boat struggling to find its rhythm.

After a solid start of 25 high strokes, the Black and White ran into trouble and lost its advantage when it failed to settle down into a cohesive rhythm.

“Our start is a series of 25 high strokes and then we settle into our base cadence which is where we try to find our rhythm,” said senior stroke Margaret Winterkorn-Meikle. “We had a good 25 strokes and then we didn’t settle into our cadence together and that’s where Princeton took off.”

Both Cornell and Princeton were leading Radcliffe until the last 30 strokes, when the Black and White pulled up three seats on the Big Red, and finished ahead of Cornell by one seat while the Tigers won the Class of ’75 Cup for the 13th straight season.

After facing two of its toughest foes this season and shifting around its line-up, Radcliffe has a good perspective of where it stands on the road to Eastern Sprints.

“[Brown and Princeton] will both improve between now and Eastern Sprints, but I think we actually have more room for improvement,” Winterkorn-Meikle said. “Everyone in our boat is in a new seat this week.”

Before the first varsity’s defeat, the second varsity bounced back from its loss to the Bears, beating Cornell by 4.2 seconds and defeated Princeton by 8.5.

“I’m thrilled for the 2V,” Winterkorn-Meikle said. “We’ve got some really strong girls on our team. I wish that I could be here for a couple more years so that I could row with them, too, because our program is only getting stronger.”

The Radcliffe second boat fell behind both the Big Red and the Tigers off of the start, but started pullinh up on Princeton in the second 500 meters.

“[Princeton’s start] was expected because they’re usually really fast off the line, but we were a little surprised by Cornell,” said sophomore stroke Leigh Pascavage.

But the Black and White fought back, walking through Princeton in the second 500 with the Big Red about three quarters of a length ahead.

Cornell remained in the lead until the final 40 strokes, when Radcliffe raced to the win in the final sprint.

“It was a really fantastic sprint and that made the race for us,” Pascavage said. “The best thing about it was that we held it together throughout the entire piece and moved through the whole 2000.”

While the first boat had rhythm on the brain after the loss to Brown, the second boat had a focus on intensity while preparing for Saturday’s regatta.