Looking strictly at the season's results, the team to beat heading into the 2016 Women's Eastern Sprints is Harvard-Radcliffe. Led by long-time mentor Liz O'Leary, now in her 30th year at the helm of the Black and White, Harvard-Radcliffe arrives at the Sprints on the heels of a typically demanding spring schedule and has undoubtedly been seasoned for top-level racing by the experience.
Radcliffe opened their season with strong racing at the Boston Women's Beanpot regatta, capturing four out of the five events contested, including a clean sweep of the NCAA events (Varsity Eight, 2nd Varsity Eight and Varsity Four). Moving on through the regular season, besides racing the full complement of Ivy League opponents, Harvard-Radcliffe also saw top crews from around the nation at the Clemson Invitational on April 15th and 16th. With all of Harvard-Radcliffe's wins at the Beanpot and during the season coming against Sprints opponents, the crews from Cambridge should have ample reason to be optimistic going into the regatta.
Right behind Harvard-Radcliffe, and poised to take advantage of any missteps by the leaders are Northeastern, Dartmouth and Boston College. Northeastern has raced strongly this spring, and appears to have found speed in April, as the Huskies arrive at Quinsigamond with solid wins over Sprints foes Dartmouth, BU and Columbia in the weeks before the championship. Looking back to 2015, where the Husky Varsity Eight faded to 4th at Sprints after a promising spring, the 2016 edition of longtime NU coach Joe Wilhelm's top eight looks poised and ready to challenge for the podium.
"Our goals all season have been to steadily improve our boat speed and racing skills," said NU's Wilhelm. "This weekend will be a good test for us against some good competition. The Sprints provides some great racing experience as we head into our conference championships as well as a valuable comparison among the six conferences represented here this weekend. The results of this weekend will definitely have an impact on the seedings at the NCAA’s next month."
Dartmouth in turn, who made waves at the 2015 Sprints under head coach Linda Muri, also will look to achieve a top performance at Worcester. The Big Green have logged some serious highway miles this year, with no home races thus far, and are looking to make a virtue of their ability to race on the road. "The biggest highlight this year has been seeing that many of the women on the team are beginning to learn how to push themselves physically and mentally," said Muri. "Our goal at Sprints is to race well. We hope to do better than last year where we had all of our crews medal, and try to step up an element or two for an overall better team finish."
Dartmouth's standout crew heading into the Sprints is the Varsity Four, which owns a win over top-seeded Radcliffe.
Boston College is also a crew that could row onto the podium in Worcester. Boasting a large team, and competitive racing during a regular season that got off to an early start in mid-March, the Eagles will certainly be ready to race. "We've made some progress from last year's spring results in every race," said BC's Steve Fiske. "We are working hard to continue to make progress, though, because we know how fast our conference is, and we'd like to see that effort rewarded with progress and best ever speed in all events at Sprints and ACCs."
Besides two cup-race wins and a runner-up finish in a strong field at the Knecht Cup, BC is very familiar with their Sprints opponents, having finished third behind Harvard-Radcliffe and Northeastern at the Women's Beanpot.
Also looking for lanes in the finals, and medals if the stars align, are Columbia, BU and Rutgers. Columbia has faced its usual tough slate of Ivy League and eastern opponents, while BU and Rutgers have benefitted from the rigors of full schedules and hard racing as well.
Completing the field for the 2016 EAWRC Sprints are Bucknell, Holy Cross, Drexel, Georgetown, MIT, Buffalo and West Virginia.
As always, the coaches know that all teams at the Sprints will be primed to perform. "Both Harvard-Radcliffe and Northeastern have shown some great speed as the regular season unfolded, but there are so many strong competitors in the Sprints League it is hard to single out any one team," said Dartmouth's Muri. "No matter what, we are looking forward to some competitive racing across the board!" NU's Wilhelm agreed. "Radcliffe is clearly the fastest crew here, but other crews have been steadily gaining speed throughout the season. A lot can change between the end of March and the beginning of May, so we will be prepared for anything this weekend."
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