It was a picture im-perfect Saturday morning on the Charles for the No. 4 Radcliffe heavyweight crew.

The first varsity Black and White eight was edged by a bow ball by No. 8 Yale for the Case Cup in a photo finish that proved anything but decisive after both teams timed in at an identical 6:24.0.

“We were anticipating a tough race against Yale,” junior one-seat Laura Martin said. “We raced a good race, moving ahead in the first 1,000. Unfortunately, we didn’t react well to their move into the fourth 500. It was a strong race, however.”

Radcliffe and the Bulldogs both powered off the line at the start, leaving Notre Dame in their wake quickly. The Black and White opened up a few seat-lead by the 500-meter mark, and continued to fight just ahead of Yale for the next 1,000 meters.

At about the 1,000-meter mark, Radcliffe surged to its largest lead of the race at just under half a length.

“Usually, the second 1,000 meters is our boat’s strength, but we were not as aggressive and technically strong in the second 1000 meters yesterday as we have been in past races and know we can be,” senior three-seat Erin Barringer said. “Yale was able to start to move back into us and shake our confidence a little.”

The Bulldogs made up the ground, but three strokes from the finish line, the Black and White still clung to a tiny lead.

Greater momentum from Yale pulled its boat even with Radcliffe as both crossed the line at virtually the same instant.

“It is hard to speak for the team, but I think we need to improve on our close race brain control,” sophomore five-seat Carrie Williams said. “We haven’t had a race that close yet. I mean, it was a great race—if my hands hadn’t been on that oar, I would have been biting my nails it was so good. Sitting next to an eight-oared screaming thrashing machine for six minutes—it was a nail-biter, and a little nerve racking.”

“There was a lot of effort that wasn’t being translated into boat speed as well as it could have been,” captain two-seat Heather Schofield added. “But, there are still three weeks until we face Yale again at Sprints so we have some time to improve consistency and effectiveness between now and then.”

The threat of inclement weather forced the start of the races to be pushed ahead to 6:30 a.m.

But strong winds and bumpy water persisted throughout the day of racing.

“I think our boat had some trouble with the quartering tailwind because it is one of the most difficult types of wind to row in,” Schofield said. “There were a number of points when the wind and the choppy water through off our set. However, Yale faced exactly the same wind that we did so it probably wasn’t a deciding factor in the race.”

The early start time meant that rowers had to wake up at a time that many undergrads were just getting to bed.

“But I mean, it was so hardcore, waking up at four, it was kind of like we were on a sneak attack or something, planning on surprising the Charles before dawn,” Williams said.

The second varsity eight race also went to the Bulldogs, who times in at 6:39.8, with Notre Dame a length and a half back (6:45.8) and Radcliffe (6:48.8) further back.

“I was not pleased at all with my boat’s performance yesterday,” junior seven-seat Ella Spottswood said. “There comes a point in every race when you just have to dig in your heels and go—we’ve shown we can do that in practice, but we have yet to really throw down in a race.”

The varsity four “B” race, which included two varsity “B” boats, as well as three novice fours, was taken by the pair of Irish boats, with the Notre Dame varsity four “B” first, and Notre Dame second novice four behind it. The Black and White varsity four “B” and second novice four crossed the line third and fourth, and Yale’s second novice four trailed a distant fifth.

The final race of the day, the first novice eight contest, was grabbed by the Irish (6:50.1), with the Bulldogs second (6:52.9) and Radcliffe third (7:02.5).

The Black and White returns to the Charles next Saturday morning to square off against MIT and Boston University with the rights to the Allen DeWolfe Trophy on the line.

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