Sometimes determining success or failure is difficult.

Often a game’s outcome falls somewhere in between.

On Sunday at Eastern Sprints, the Radcliffe lightweight and heavyweight crews raced to a combined four-medal performance at these championships, with the lightweight varsity eight running second and the heavyweight varsity squad posting fifth—a result neither above nor below expectations.

The lightweights wanted to beat Princeton, the No.1 squad in the country, to avenge its loss two weeks ago. The team did this, but still did not satisfy its primary goal—winning Sprints—because Wisconsin snuck up to take the victory from the Black and White.

Following the normal Badger trend of gaining speed during the season, the returning national champion Wisconsin varsity eight posted a blistering time of 7:14.00 to beat Radcliffe by six seconds. This result is a big shift from the last time the two met, at the Knecht Cup earlier in the season, when the Black and White beat the Badgers by almost ten seconds.

“It wasn’t surprising that [Wisconsin] gained speed because we’ve seen them gain speed over the course of the spring,” co-captain Sarah Bates said. “It was satisfying to beat Princeton—not quite the result we wanted but we had a very good race with what we wanted to do.”

Meanwhile the Tigers struggled to a fourth place showing, falling behind Georgetown as well. It was a sign of the improved depth of the field and the emergence of the Hoyas on the national level.

“I didn’t think it was a matter of Princeton losing speed,” said Bates. “It was more Georgetown gaining speed and racing well.”

But the IRA National championship will be a different story. Things can change in three weeks, for by that time, Princeton may rise up again, or Georgetown, the new crew on the river, may emerge to take first. Whatever the case, Radcliffe knows this year can be different—they have more confidence to challenge Wisconsin’s normal surge to the front or any other boat’s challenge.

“[Wisconsin’s] surge is something that has happened before, we have been expecting this for a long time,” co-captain Ashley Antony said. “But this year, we think we have more speed to find that we will find to take them on more strongly at IRA’s.”

Another bright spot for the Black and White was the medaling of two of its other three boats—the novice eight and varsity four—attaining a third and a second, respectively.

“We had boat on Princeton the entire race,” said senior Cindy Obst, member of the varsity four. “So we hung with the Princeton boat all the way; it was definitely a great race and improve.”

On the other side, the heavyweights were set on putting together a good race for the first time in four week. By qualifying for the grand final and attaining a fifth-place showing there, the team accomplished this.

“We really put our rowing together well this weekend,” junior Carrie Williams said. “Our times speak to how well we found a rhythm and actually rowed well—we condition as hard as anyone but now we also found the rhythm.”

But the heavyweights also wanted to secure a place in the NCAA tournament for the ninth straight year. With a fifth place showing, that success is still up in the air. It will come down to coaches on Tuesday and Wednesday as to whether the Black and White will get that bid.

The team, no matter what the committee decides, are excited about its putting together a solid race throughout the entire team. The 2nd varsity eight attained the lone medal for the team in notching a third place showing on the day, and the novice eight, despite losing many of its freshman to the varsity squads, still placed fourth overall.

“Overall we were really pleased with every boat making the grand finals show that we’re not just a team made up of one boat,” senior Laura Martin said. “With pulling the freshman up and the novice boat still being stellar, that speaks a lot to our program’s depth.”

And if the squad does make the NCAA championship, then this good race will give the team a newfound determination to put another race together in three weeks.

“We have more of a resolution,” said Williams. “But this weekend we’ve put forth a race that we won’t be disappointed in—we can feel the strength we put into it for the future.”

—Staff writer Walter E. Howell can be reached at wehowell@fas.harvard.edu.