“We used that loss to fuel our training for the rest of the season,” said Fisher.

“After the race, our coach told us that together we could find three more seconds to gain the margin of victory. As a boat we were able to come together and find even more speed to win in the end.”

The Black and White Strikes Back

A few weeks later, Radcliffe had its chance to exact revenge and display its extensive improvements, squaring off against Brown at the Eastern Sprints Championship on the Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey.

Ranked second in the field and fifth in the country before the race, the Black and White staked it’s claim to the top, beating the five-time defending champion Brown crew by an open-water margin of five seconds. While still staying on a determined course for the NCAA Championships, the victory serves as a microcosm of the team’s development through the season.

“We began the season with some amazing talent in the boat,” said Fisher describing Radcliffe’s progress. “Throughout the season we continued to push ourselves to be stronger, faster, and to row better together. We gained speed throughout the entire season, which is what allowed us to keep rising to the competition at each level.”

“Winning Eastern Sprints was the defining moment of the season. Going into the race the press was talking all about the round-robin at the top,” she added, referring to Brown, Princeton, and Radcliffe. “We stayed focused and rowed with the precision and attack that we had trained with all season long. Once we won Sprints, we headed to Nationals with reckless abandon.”

Each rower had to refocus for the climax of all the training and energy each member had poured into the team throughout the year: the NCAA Championships. In 2002, the team had placed 11th in a field of 12, but 2003 was destined to be different.

The Black and White started the competition with performances that sent a message to opposing crews, qualifying three boats in the Grand Finals. No other team had placed as many boats in the Sunday morning final that was to decide the championship.

“We realized that we had a shot at the NCAA championship when the results were posted from the reperchages [for the 2V and V4] and the varsity semi-finals,” said senior Sarah Ronis.

“I think the team approached the grands with a sense of ‘there’s nothing to lose, and everything to gain,’ which made for some fantastic racing Sunday morning. After winning Sprints, we headed to Nationals with the assumption that anything was possible.”

With the second varsity and the varsity four boat posting mixed results in the morning—placing fifth and sixth respectively—the task of wrapping up the victory fell to the varsity eight boat in the last of the races.

The fate of the NCAA season would come down to this one final race.

Following its strategy perfectly, the Black and White let Washington seize the early lead. But Radcliffe owned the middle of the course on through the finish line.

“How did I feel after winning? Great. Relieved. Proud,” O’Leary said, adding she was “impressed with the remarkable group of women who had just raced the whole regatta brilliantly.”