In general, a novice is a beginner, often inexperienced, usually untrained, and possibly even detrimental.

Fortunately for the Radcliffe crew team, novices have proved be just the opposite. The influx of strong freshman and first-years into the program this year, particularly in the heavyweight program, has bolstered the Black and White in their quest for nautical domination.

Take freshman Elizabeth Demers, a member of Radcliffe’s first varsity eight and a prime example of the instrumental novice presence on the women’s heavyweight team.

Demers had only been rowing for mere months when she arrived at Harvard, having started racing in the spring of her senior year.

“I was planning on swimming,” Demers said. “But my uncle, [a member of the 1974 undefeated Harvard crew and future Olympian], and my parents pushed me to start training on the erg.”

Demers’ stellar performance on the erg, an individual marker for speed on the river, qualified her for the Junior National Team last summer.

“I’ve only been racing for a year,” Demers said. “It took time to race at such a high level [on the National team] and here at Harvard, racing with people four years older than I am.”

Demers’ transition is a testament to the incredible effort that she and the four other freshmen rowers, including Laura Nicholson and Katherine Schutter, second-seat and stroke on the varsity eight, respectively, are contributing to the team.

“The fact we can help the varsity boat that got third last year at National championships is inspiring,” Demers said.

The Black and White are not the only team to call upon the talents of young freshmen to increase boat speed—it is becoming a national trend.

“It’s a reflection of what’s going on throughout the whole country,” senior heavyweight Laura Martin said. “There has always been a novice program separate from the varsity, but now, we’re using the fastest freshman up into both the 2nd varsity eight and 1st varsity eight to get the best speed.”

As college crew programs throughout the country acknowledge the benefits of bumping up freshmen, Radcliffe seems to be ahead of the competition. The strength of its current freshman class bodes well for the team’s future.

“Our freshman boat, even without the five freshman varsity rowers is so fast,” Demers said. “It speaks to the depth of our freshman walk-ons and recruits coming in—and it looks to continue in the future.”

Unfortunately, the Black and White lightweights cannot so easily indulge themselves in this freshmen commodity.

But they haven’t let that stop them. With its success so greatly resting in the hands of walk-ons, the lightweight team has found solace in its freshmen and sophomore novices this year. In addition, recruits such as Rebekah Kharrazi have also produced an immediate influence on the team’s success.

“[Rebekah]’s done an amazing job transitioning; she’s very poised and brings that to her rowing,” senior lightweight co-captain Sarah Bates said. “It’s also amazing how the group of novices, who have never rowed before last fall, have come so far, and the work Eric Catalano has done is amazing to mold them to help the team.”

The strong lightweight novice class has given the No. 2 squad its depth and talent this year. The novice eight consists entirely of first-time rowers, and the team recognizes the strong walk-ons and freshman key Radcliffe’s success.

“The heavyweight team can afford to train their freshman as novices, when the lightweight team is so much smaller,” Kharrazi said. “We started off with four recruits, and the heavyweights had almost 16 recruits this year, so we can not afford to not have stellar freshman.”

The favorable trend of growth in the lightweight walk-on program and in the strength of heavyweight freshmen is painting a positive picture for Radcliffe crew in the future, hopefully starting with the very near future--this weekend at Eastern Sprints.

“Princeton is a boat full of members recruited or who have rowed before,” Bates said. “So it’s really great that there are so many great boats made of walk-ons to compete against them in a sport that relies so heavily on walk-ons.”

Possessing such freshman talent and a consequently adept team overall is paramount for crew, more so than most any other sports.

For Radcliffe, the term novice means much more than the dictionary definition,



—Staff writer Courtney Petrouski can be reached at petrous@fas.harvard.edu.