After finishing last spring with top national rankings, the Radcliffe heavyweight and lightweight crew teams returned to the water Oct. 5-6 to kick off their fall campaigns. Several boats from both squads competed in the Head of the Genesee Regatta in Rochester, N.Y., placing second and third, respectively, while other boats raced in the Textile River Regatta in Lowell, Mass.

Both teams will now compete in the famed Head of the Charles Regatta this weekend. This regatta will pit them against some of the toughest competition of the fall racing season and provide a barometer of their prospects for the longer spring season.

HEAVYWEIGHTS

The heavyweight Black and White has spent the last two weeks preparing for the Head of the Charles, where it will enter three boats of eight and one four.

“Our performance in our 5K was promising [at Head of the Genesee],” co-captain Katie Wilcox said. “It’s always nice to have a race before Head of the Charles because it’s a wakeup call. We had time to hit the ground running for two weeks, gain more fitness, and work on meshing together.”

This weekend, two boats will compete in the Championship Eight category, while the four will compete in the Championship Four category, and another eight will race in the Club Eight category. The Club Eight race has strict criteria to ensure that its competitors have a similar level of experience, typically requiring a team comprised of freshmen.

“In our first race, we saw a very competitive nature and an excitement and a fire that we’re going to continue to foster,” co-captain Kelly Bauer said. “But the Head of the Charles brings competitors from all over the world. It’s great to have the whole city come out and line the river and watch us race. ”

The seniors are eagerly anticipating their final Head of the Charles rowing for Radcliffe and plan to expend all their effort on the water.

“We practice the course all the time; we know every landmark along the river,” Wilcox said. “We have the local community support, and we have our friends from the rowing community that are coming from across the country to row here.... We’re looking to push this team to a level of success that we haven’t seen before.”

LIGHTWEIGHTS

Using an intense cadence and rhythm, the top lightweight boat placed third in the Head of the Genesee, just behind its heavyweight counterpart. It plans to use this same strategy to compete in their Head of the Charles races.

“We kept it together throughout the race and held our technique and power,” co-captain Elizabeth Lenczowski said. “We kept pushing the rate up throughout the piece, which is what we’re looking to do [this weekend]. Our coxswain called the piece as if we were racing Head of the Charles, so that was helpful to imagine how we’re going to go about attacking the race.”

Although the first varsity eight crew placed second at the IRA National Championship last spring, Lenczowski was not satisfied by the group’s finish.

“I think our performance really left us hungry for more,” Lenczowski said. “We’re looking forward to the challenge of topping that, and we’re all really motivated to work hard toward a gold medal at the IRA’s this year. Our race in England [at the Women’s Henley Regatta] this summer gave us the chance to race a lot of fast crews internationally, but we all came back ready to train hard and win a championship this year.”

The lightweights face an unexpected challenge due to coaching changes created by the loss of longtime heavyweight men’s coach Harry Parker, who passed away in June, and was replaced by Charley Butt, the former head coach of the men’s lightweight team. Former Radcliffe head coach Michiel Bartman moved to the men’s lightweight team to fill the spot vacated by Butt, leaving the women’s lightweight crew with just an assistant coach.

Last Friday, Elizabeth ‘Lou’ Berl was hired as the new lightweight coach, coming from Davidson, N.C., where she most recently started Lou’s Garage Crew, a program designed to train young competitive rowers. Prior to arriving in Cambridge, Berl coached at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., as well as at the University of Virginia and the Ohio State University.

With no head coach named for the first part of their training this season, the rowers looked to one another for support.

“The coaching changes have some impact on the team’s performance and culture, but ultimately it’s the rowers themselves that dictate the success of the team,” Lenczowski said. “We [used] this transition as an opportunity to step up ourselves and see what we [could] accomplish working together.”

Assistant coach Lauren Fisher has led the girls so far this season, along with a few volunteer assistant coaches and women’s heavyweight head coach Liz O’Leary.

“We’re sticking with the same goals that we’ve had in the past, and we’re working with a similar training plan,” Fisher said. “They’re doing a really good job of being able to continue to move on and meet their goals....Their times are actually faster than their times were at this point last year.”

This weekend, the lightweight team will enter three boats, competing in the Women’s Championship Eight and the Women’s Lightweight Fours. Fisher hopes for a repeat of the first eight’s first-place performance last year and expects solid performances from her other two boats as well.

“Head of the Charles is definitely the most important race for us in the fall,” Fisher said.

In preparing for the race, Lenczowski remembers the advice of her former coach.

“It’s great to be able to do well at Head of the Charles, but ultimately it doesn’t mean you’ll win at the IRA’s,” Lenczowski said.