A key to the Radcliffe women’s heavyweight crew winning the O’Leary Cup this weekend against Syracuse and Dartmouth was simply listening to the woman whose name is borne on the cup.

That would be longtime coach Liz O’Leary, who instructed No. 10 Radcliffe to row a smart, consistent race, and the first varsity boat listened well in beating No. 12 Syracuse by a boat-and-a-half at Onondaga Lake in Syracuse on Saturday.

“Our coach told us to race a steady race and have even splits for every 400 or 500 meters,” said senior stroke Margaret Winterkorn-Meikle. “We did exactly what our coach said, and it worked.”

The Orangewomen jumped out to a boat-length lead at the start, but they could not sustain their fast pace. Radcliffe caught up by the 700-meter mark and pulled in front at the halfway point. The Black and White won the race by the five-seconds over Syracuse, who were the defending cup champions, while Dartmouth finished a distant third.

“Syracuse had a much faster start, but we just had a much stronger rhythm,” Winterkorn-Meikle said. “We raced our own race rather than theirs, and that’s a key to winning in rowing.”

The victory was crucial because it allowed the Radcliffe first varsity eight to hold down the fourth-spot in the EAWRC crew rankings. Syracuse was ranked right behind Radcliffe at fifth.

The Radcliffe second varsity eight, first varsity four, and first novice boats each posted comfortable victories as well. The second novice eight edged out Dartmouth by 2.6 seconds. The second varsity four was the only boat that came up short, falling to Syracuse.

Entering the week, the second varsity eight was ranked second in the East and the undefeated first novice eight was ranked first.

“They’re the backbone of our team,” Winterkorn-Meikle said. “The novices have been doing great, the second varsity has gone above what they might have expected of themselves. I’m really proud of them.”

The second varsity eight and first varsity four have no effect of the crew’s national ranking, which is only based on the performance of the first varsity eight, but their performance will count for Radcliffe’s standing at the NCAA championships, if they advance that far.

While Radcliffe is presently ranked behind its next opponent Yale, who’s ranked seventh in the nation and second in the East, the first varsity eight is confident that it can improve upon its standing.

“We made up a lot of seconds this week,” Winterkorn-Meikle said. “We had a lot of extra practices, and our boat felt a 100 percent better. I don’t see any reason why we can’t improve just as much next week.”

Women’s Lightweights

The women’s lightweight crew, who ascended to No. 3 in the national polls following an upset of Princeton, backed up that lofty post yesterday by outdistancing No. 8 MIT and No. 13 Rhode Island by a commanding margin of 14.5 seconds.

“We have finally made it into the top tier of lightweight racing squads and it’s a blast to go out together and challenge anyone for 2000 meters,” said captain Robin Lockwood.