Knights Take Win In Tough Weather

With only two boats in the varsity eight race, the headline race of the day, the Radcliffe lightweight crew first varsity was edged out by Central Florida by one second. The Black and White regrouped to take the last two races of the day, the varsity four and the novice four.

“I don’t think any of us were satisfied with how we raced this weekend,” junior Rebekah Kharrazi said. “This was certainly not the result we were anticipating or would have preferred.”

Going into the day, the Radcliffe crew was ranked No. 3 nationally, UCF No. 5, and MIT No. 10. All gathered on the often forbidding Charles River in the face of some seriously challenging conditions.

“The conditions were some of the worst that I’ve raced in,” captain Katharine Woodman-Maynard said. “We had really heavy chop, lots of waves, and a tailwind which made the race faster. Very squirrelly conditions.”

“They weren’t very clean conditions or clean races,” Kharrazi added. “It’s tough to race in conditions like that, in any of the extremes. Wind is the most extreme condition for rowing. Heavy rain, snow, or intense heat is fine, when it comes to wind that’s the one thing that will keep us off the water, and we saw a lot of that.”

In the varsity eight, Radcliffe got off the line early and initially led. The Golden Knights made a move, however, and finished in 6:46.6, one second better than the Black and White at 6:47.6. The Engineers pulled across 15 seconds later, and the second varsity Radcliffe boat finished 6.2 seconds after them.

“UCF in recent years has been up there when it comes to lightweight rowing,” Kharrazi said. “A few years ago [they] were very fast and in the final of IRAs, and [they] have shown a lot of speed since. We were expecting a tough race, and it turned out to be exactly that. I do anticipate they will be at IRAs, and they will be gunning for it, as will everybody else, and they’ve definitely proved that they are one of the top teams up there this year.”

“MIT raced a pretty good race,” Kharrazi added. “Coming off the line it was pretty even across the line for at least the first part of the race—everyone got off the line pretty quickly, so we knew it would be a tight race.

Rallying for the second race, Radcliffe trounced the MIT boat by a 25.5-second margin.

Finishing up the day, the Black and White’s novice four beat two MIT boats. Radcliffe finished with a time of 8:10 and MIT A finished in 8:14. MIT B followed 10 seconds behind.

Showing dedication to causes beyond rowing and solidarity with the Radcliffe heavyweight crew, the team donned pink shirts during races and helped raise over 1000 dollars for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

“It was nice, because there was a lot of racing on the water,” Woodman-Maynard said. “The men’s lightweight and heavyweight teams had races, and the heavyweight women had their races, too. There were a lot of people in the boat house, and afterwards they had a commemoration for seniors. It was a nice Radcliffe crew day.”

Looking ahead, two weeks from now the crew will travel south to Camden, N.J. for Eastern Sprints. Success at that reace could secure an NCAA bid for the Black and White. That race would be held in Camden on June 5-7. Radcliffe finished fourth in nationals there last season.

“I think there will probably be some shake ups to get us back on track for Sprints,” Woodman-Maynard said.

—Staff writer Elizabeth A. Joyce can be reached at eajoyce@fas.harvard.edu.