The story of the 2003-2004 Radcliffe lightweight crew is the one of an epic battle between three powerhouses.

This season, the high trinity of women’s lightweight collegiate racing was Radcliffe, Princeton and Wisconsin.

These three teams sat atop the polls week in and week out and took one of the nation’s three prestigious regattas.

Their three showdowns, coming three and four weeks apart on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., settled for a time the matter of America’s finest lightweight octet.

In their war of attrition, it was the Badgers that wound up dealing the most powerful blow, as they dominated the IRA National Championship Grand Final on June 5. Yet the Black and White certainly had its moments in the spring of ’04.

Going into its first regatta of the year, Radcliffe sported a No. 1 ranking, coming off second-place finishes in both the 2003 Eastern Sprints and IRA Championships.

In its first contest of the year, the Windermere Classic, held in Redwood Shores, Calif., the Black and White vanquished then-No. 3 Stanford and No. 5 Georgetown. But the then-No. 2 Tigers again had Radcliffe’s number, topping the Black and White by three seconds for their ninth consecutive victory over Radcliffe dating back to May 4, 2002. The loss dropped the Black and White to No. 2 in the nation. But after easily dispatching then-No. 10 Rhode Island, Radcliffe got another shot at Princeton three weeks later at the Knecht Cup on the Cooper. The Black and White was edged by the Tigers, this time by less than two and a half seconds.

However, Radcliffe did top then-No. 3 Wisconsin by 2.7 seconds, as well as three other top-ten crews.

Radcliffe got another crack at Princeton one week after the Cup, this time on the friendly ripples of the Charles River.

For the first time in its last 11 attempts, the Black and White beat the Tigers, coming back from a deficit at the midway point thanks to an early sprint.

“One of the best parts of the race was coming into the last 10 strokes of the race, looking over at the Princeton boat and seeing that we were about five seats up and then looking up at my stroke and just seeing this huge grin on her face,” senior coxswain Lauren Sheerr said. “It was like everything we had been working for had come together.”

Everything had indeed coalesced.

Radcliffe reclaimed the top spot in the polls, beat then-No. 9 MIT in its last race on the Charles, and cruised into the EARC Sprints with plenty of wind in its sails.

The Sprints turned into a tour de force for the Black and White. In the Grand Finals, Radcliffe emerged from the starting line even with the Tigers, the Badgers and Georgetown. Sticking with Princeton over the opening 1,000 meters was something new for the Black and White, which was accustomed having to come from behind to offer a challenge.

“For the first race that I can remember, we were never down on Princeton—after matching them off the start we just kept going,” co-captain Ame Bothwell said.

The Black and White gradually inched farther and farther ahead of the Tigers, gaining distance seat-by-seat until it pushed ahead by a length.

“When Lauren Sheerr, our coxswain, told us she was on Princeton’s bow ball, I think we all knew we had the race,” Bothwell said.

Wisconsin made a furious sprint to the finish, eventually passing the Tigers as well.

Radcliffe crossed the line in 6:38.60, beating the Badgers by nearly three seconds and Princeton by three and a half and setting a course record for the event.

“It was some of the best racing I think our boat has ever done,” Bothwell said.

The victory was the lights’ first Sprints title since 1997, and 10th overall. Four weeks later, though, at the IRAs, the Badgers tore through their preliminary heat, torching Princeton by nearly eight seconds, then dashed past the Tigers and the Black and White in the Grand Final.

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.