Radcliffe Journeys to Oakland To Defend National Crew Title

The Radcliffe four and eight, undefeated and Eastern Sprints champs, will journey to Oakland next week for the National Women's Rowing Association Championships.

The preliminary heats are this Friday, with the finals for the fours on Saturday, and the eights on Sunday. The national champion will then be eligible to represent the U.S. at the World Championships at Lucerne, Switzerland in September.

The defending national champ eight of cox Nancy Hadley, stroke Alison Hill, seven Allison Hall, six Wiki Royden, five Jenny Getsinger, four Katie Moss, three Connie Cervilla, two Judith Ames, and bow Marie Adams will undergo a minor shake-up for the race. Baker has straight-rigged the boat, changing it from the German rig he employed all season.

The varsity four of coxswain Amy Sacks, stroke Barbara Norris, three Anne Robinson, two Robin Lothrop, and bow Sarah Kuhn suffered a serious setback when Kuhn sprained her back in practice. As a result, the four has had only light workouts the past few days, but Radcliffe coach John Baker expects Kuhn to be ready for the weekend races.

Although he has a faster crew than last year's boat, Baker is by no means over-confident about his team's prospects.

"I really don't know if we're going to win it. I'm not saying we're going to lose, but anything can happen when you have the kind of stiff competition we'll be facing," he said.

Radcliffe's chief challengers in the eight will be Long Beach, State and Washington, schools with large student bodies to draw upon. The four will have Vesper and College Boat Club as its main rivals.

"We're excited about the race," said cox Amy Sacks. "We never thought we'd get this far, but I think we can do it."