Opening Up the Field

While the perennial trifecta of Princeton, Radcliffe and Wisconsin offers a friendly rivalry for fans and rowers alike, the lack of other strong women’s lightweight programs is a notable lament for the sport.

Tisei noted that while there are a number of emerging programs, including Stanford, Georgetown, MIT and URI, colleges have a long way to go in developing the lightweight level for women.

“It’s certainly something that’s been disappointing, in that it comes down to the three,” Tisei said.

Beyond the traditional trio, Milne noted that, “there’s the occasional odd surprise of a team chasing us,” such as Mercyhurst, hardly a dominant presence on the water, but one which nonetheless placed third at the 2002 Nationals.

But the occasional surprise, rather than a larger pool of competitive crews as on the women’s heavyweights level, is the exact point of concern.

“The problem is a lot of Ivies won’t introduce lightweight programs for women,” Spence said. “Yale has an amazing women’s heavyweight program and a great men’s lightweight program, but they don’t have a women’s lightweight program. The same goes for Brown, Cornell and Columbia.”

Tucker held an optimistic view on the matter.

“Stanford is only two years old, so they’re just starting out,” she said. “I expect Stanford will be a powerful program in the future. Georgetown is developing a strong program, as is MIT. They’ll be up-and-coming teams to watch. It’s some growth, and we’d like to see more.”

—Staff writer John R. Hein can be reached at hein@fas.harvard.edu.