This fall season, Slatery has often appeared in the bow or stroke seats of the eight, a spot reserved for rowers with strong technical skills.

“[Rowing with Radcliffe is] a completely different level of rowing than I’m used to,” Slatery said. “I think it’s one of the most exciting parts of the sport—just to be able to row with some athletes who have been in boats for eight years.”

Spring will be a return to a familiar season of racing for Slatery, who had never previously participated in a fall season. After a break from the water over the winter, the team will compete with each other for seats in the various Ivy races that will occur over the semester.

“There’ll be a lot of competition within the team, where we’re all trying to beat each other to make the best boats,” she said. “Then in the spring, we’ll come together again as a team and we’ll go out there and beat Yale and all the other Ivies.”

A SWEEPING IMPORT

It’s over 9000 miles from Freddie Archibald’s hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand to Harvard, but the distance certainly hasn’t slowed down the freshman, who was able to row with the first varsity eight during the fall season.

“It was heaps of fun,” Archibald said. “The older girls, all the seniors and everyone, were so nice and it was such a privilege to row with them. Just technically and physically, they’re all pretty amazing.”

Archibald began rowing as a freshman in high school at St. Margaret’s College and found great success with the sport. She rowed for the New Zealand Junior National Team, competing at the Junior World Rowing Championships at Eton in the summer of 2011 in a coxless four. Archibald met the recruiters from Harvard at Eton and later agreed to join the Class of 2016.

“Freddie—now there’s a personality,” O’Leary said. “Freddie Archibald is a character.... She’s been quite successful in everything she’s done here this fall to the point where I have her in my top boat as a freshman.”

Archibald admits that the transition from living in New Zealand to Cambridge has certainly not been without its challenges.

“[Coming from New Zealand] it’s really different,” Archibald said. “I can’t place my finger on it. I thought, ‘English-speaking [country]; English-speaking [country]; it’s be the same,’ but it’s really not. I’m still adjusting. It’s just a whole different culture here, a different sense of humor, different way we talk—just everything.”

Regardless of any troubles acclimating to life in a new country, Archibald has had a commanding fall season. Sitting in the four-seat for the Championship Eight race at Head of the Charles alongside with some of the world’s best, she helped Radcliffe crew glide to a seventh-place finish in a field of 40.

Still, Archibald looks forward to joining the freshmen again for winter training and the spring season.

“I’ve really missed rowing with the other freshmen,” she said. “They’re a great group of girls and we’ve all bonded really well.”

BECKONED TO THE BOATHOUSE