The next day at the grand final, the Black and White 1V8 boat began the race bow to bow with the Cardinals, but at the 1000-meter mark, Stanford pulled ahead and never trailed Radcliffe to clinch its fourth consecutive national championship.

“They just pushed it out a bit more the whole race, but we definitely never lost sight of them to the end,” said Emma Lukasiewicz, rowing in the sixth seat and the lone senior in the first varsity eight boat. “It was disappointing, but we had a fantastic race and are really pleased with the silver.”

But thanks to a first-place finish at Eastern Sprints the week before, the 1V8 boat’s season is not quite done. On June 24, the Black and White’s top lightweight crew will participate at the Henley Regatta, held on the Thames, for the first time in Radcliffe history.

“This is the first time that the lightweight women have ever gotten to travel abroad—we’ve never been given the opportunity, so this is really exciting for us,” Lukasiewicz said. “We want to show that we’ve earned it, and it definitely means a lot to me as a senior because it means that my season isn’t over, and I think it’ll be really cool to see what we can do against some new teams.”

The lightweight fours pulled out a similar finish to their 1V8 counterparts. After finishing in second in the heat to Wisconsin, the Black and White crossed the finals line seven seconds behind the Badgers, giving Radcliffe its second silver medal of the day.

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samanthalin@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter at @linsamnity.