To simulate the competition that the Sprints will inevitably offer, the Black and White has focused on racing against itself across skill levels. The practice has allowed recently reshaped boats to develop a bit more chemistry.

Junior Sylvia Yang dropped to the Varsity 4 ‘A’ boat following Radcliffe’s most recent match up against the Tigers, thrusting senior Katie Greenzang into her place.

Since then, the crew has reshuffled its seating positions, seating Hertz and junior Laura Spence in the seven and six seats, respectively, to clean up stroke technique on the starboard side.

“We have a bucket rig and I think it helps us follow each other better,” Bates said.

In the end though, Sprints may come down to neither technique nor seat positioning, but sheer strength of will.

“I think this time it’s just going to come down to whether we have that extra bit in us,” Bates said. “If we want it more than they do.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.