It has been a turbulent few years for the Radcliffe heavyweight program. After missing the NCAA Championships last season for the first time in 10 years, much was expected this year.

But last weekend, the lingering questions were answered.

The Black and White were back at the NCAAs, racing against the best twelve crews in the nation.

At the championships, the team raced well but finished near the bottom of the best, as no squad reached a Grand Final. Each crew, from the varsity eight to the varsity four, finished just out of a shot at gold with fourth-place performances in their respective semifinal heats.

As a result, the team tallied an 11th-place finish at the championships.

“If you look at [the fact] that there are twelve teams invited, it’s not where we wanted to finish,” junior Esther Lofgren said. “But this was the first NCAA competition for many of us, and we raced our hardest.”

None more so than the varsity eight, as the squad posted a staggering time of 6:27.62, one of its best paces of the year. In doing so, the crew finished just 0.37 seconds behind third-place Princeton, and, therefore, just 0.37 seconds out of the Grand Final.

And in this first semifinal heat, Radcliffe was gaining on the Tigers. With 25 more feet, an entrance into the Grand Final would have been there for the taking.