The Radcliffe second varsity boat improved the most upon its prior seeding, finishing in fourth place after being tagged with a preliminary ranking of seventh, having lost to BU and Northeastern’s second varsities on May 5 on the Charles.
The Black and White lost a dogfight to BU by 0.2 seconds a week ago for Charles River bragging rights but came back to break out an open-water victory over the Terriers in the morning heats. The same was true against Northeastern in the final, as Radcliffe turned a one-second loss a week ago into a convincing victory by a half length this weekend.
“It was all or nothing in the morning’s heat, and we really had a strong final,” junior stroke Sarah Psutka said, “It was great to rematch the teams we faced last week.”
While the JV boat was 10 seconds off Brown this weekend, it has three weeks to gain speed before NCAAs. But because of the improvements it has made thus far, everyone seems optimistic, and—because of a finish one place out of medal contention this weekend—hungry for more.
The women’s third varsity four found itself on the other end of the upsets this weekend. With a fourth-place finish in the petite finals, the Black and White four came in 10th overall, falling three places from their preliminary ranking of seventh.
It was a tough draw in the morning heats for the Radcliffe four, as it had to overcome top-ranked Cornell and sixth-ranked Yale, and also hold off a startling move by Penn, who was ranked 12th before this weekend.
With a time of 8:36.0, Radcliffe finished a disappointing 4th in its morning heat, 15 seconds away from qualifying for the final.
There were more disappointing suprises at the novice level. Ranked second to Yale in the final poll of the year, the Radcliffe first novice eight beat the fourth-place Elis in the final, but could not fend off the Princeton and Brown boats, which finished first and second respectively. Radcliffe walked away from the final race of the season with a bittersweet bronze.
Likewise for the second novice boat, who won its morning heat, but was then knocked out of medal contention in the afternoon by surprising charges from Northeastern and Virginia—both of whom were ranked lower going into the weekend. The Black and White was ranked third beforehand but couldn’t muster a medal winning performance, coming in fifth.
The heavies are waiting to hear of a probable NCAA bid next Tuesday, and are sitting on more and more speed as the year goes on, with expectatioins to peak at the right time in Indianapolis.
Radcliffe Lightweights
The lightweight competition was an eye-opener for both the Radcliffe eight and four as both came away with bronzes, adhering to the preliminary rankings, but both finished off of where they had hoped timewise.
The Black and White varsity eight found that the third time is not a charm on two counts. For one thing, Radcliffe couldn’t avoid a third straight third-place Easterns finish. For another, the Black and White dropped its rubber match with the defending champion Tigers, whom they beat in mid-April but lost to in their second meeting of the year last weekend.
On Sunday on the Cooper, the Princeton varsity lights took home the victory, coming from behind to beat Wisconson, the top ranked team.
Radcliffe, ranked third, finished with bronze again this year, but would have liked to have been closer than 12 seconds out of first.
In the four, Radcliffe struggled to keep up with Wisconsin—the eventual winner—and Princeton off the start, as the headwind was much stronger down the course. After the start, though, the race seemed to come together for the Black and White and it ended up with a solid third-place finish, but was still 17 seconds behind Princeton.
“The results were definitely a little disapointing,” sophomore bow seat Bonnie Scott said of the bronze. “But the race itself was better than what we had been having.”
The lights hope to maintain the proud tradition of Black and White varsities who have won five IRA National Championships since 1991.
Three weeks of improvement stand between Radcliffe and IRAs, also held on Camden’s sparkling Cooper on May 31 and June 1. Going in as underdogs doesn’t hurt the Black and White, as anything can happen in lightweight rowing.