With a second-place finish, the Black and White captured a berth to the final race of the Invitational where it faced No. 10 Ohio State, Dartmouth and Northeastern.

On Sunday, the Black and White proved its mettle by moving through the Buckeyes, Big Green, and Huskies. Ohio State took an early lead in the race, with Radcliffe, Dartmouth, and Northeastern slightly behind.

But 500 meters into the race, the Black and White took its first major move of the race to take the lead. Radcliffe’s next push, which came at the 1,000-meter mark, gave it a lead of nearly a boat length, leaving the Big Green and Buckeyes to battle for second place.

The Black and White finished with a time of 7:09.1, with Ohio State and Dartmouth finishing 7:11.5 and 7:12.2, respectively. The Huskies would finish last with a time of 7:23.7.

The victory avenged the Big Green’s defeat of Radcliffe in Saturday’s tough conditions and also gave the Black and White its biggest win of the season with its defeat of the 10th-ranked Buckeyes.

“Winning is always a step in right direction,” said Radcliffe heavyweight coach Liz O’Leary. “That’s what we wanted to accomplish this weekend and the varsity crew accomplished that. But now we have to start looking towards the next weekend.”

Next weekend, the Black and White will race against rival Yale for the Case Cup.

“Yale beat Ohio State by more than we did, so Yale has clearly found some speed that they didn’t have earlier in the season,” O’Leary said. “Hopefully, we have too and we’ll have a good race with them.”

—Staff writer Oluwatoni A. Campbell can be reached at oluwatoni.campbell@college.harvard.edu.