Radcliffe's Light and Heavy Crews Take Season Openers on Charles

The Radcliffe heavyweight varsity crew toppled Brown. MIT and Northeastern while the lightweights bested BU and Penn in their first races of the season Saturday. Despite choppy waves and heavy winds on the Charles, both teams came from behind to capture victory by nine and two seats respectively.

"It was a good race," said heavyweight team Captain Liz Reid, adding, "We had good control of the conditions." Although Brown jumped to an early two-seat lead, the Radcliffe heavies pulled even at the 500-meter mark. Brown sprinted at the 1000-meter mark but couldn't maintain its speed as the Black and White stepped up the pace in the final 30 strokes to vanquish Brown by three seconds.

All Together Now

The victory was particularly impressive since the boat members have only been practicing together since Thursday. Injury and illness over spring break training forced the team to do late "seat racing" for positions which resulted in a late selection of the heavyweight boat

"The race gave us the basis we need to beat the faster teams like Princeton and B.U.," said Reid. The crew faces Cornell and Princeton at Cornell next weekend, and the team members are optimistic about their chances of success.

The Radcliffe lightweight women's crew overcame a Boston University weight advantage as well as the adverse weather conditions to edge out the fourth heavyweight Terrier squad, and UPenn's lightweight varsity.

Despite a sluggish start, which left the Radcliffe-crew a seat behind the B.U. squad, the Crimson team's steady, controlled style enabled the Cantabs to pull ahead by two seats midway through the race and hold on to that lead until the end of the race.

The Terriers weight advantage was negated by the strong tailwind, while the Crimson's controlled, steady strokes were well-suited to the rough water.

"We were not particularly disconcerted by the rough weather," Captain Martha Johnson said after the race. "Practice, especially during spring break was under similar conditions."