The Daily Orange

Rowing through heavy fog and a steady rain, the Syracuse women's rowing team placed second in three races en route to finishing second overall Friday at the Cayuga Cup, held on local Onondaga Lake. The Orange finished second behind No. 1 Yale and ahead of Cornell.

SU bettered its times in all six events from the Kittell Cup a week ago. SU finished second in the Varsity Eight with a time of 6:44.8, improving by 12 seconds.

"I was very happy with how we started against Yale," Varsity Eight coxswain Kate Todd said. "All week we worked on taking the boat up to a higher stroke rate, and we did that. We were at 34 to 35 per minute. We were really on our mark. It gives us great morale going into Penn and Northeastern next week."

Prior to Friday's race, the Orange focused on improving its transition from the early, slower pace to the final, faster push in the last third of the race. At the Kittell Cup last week, Syracuse struggled with the pace switch, and against the top-ranked team in the nation, the Orange needed to withstand the Bulldogs' strong final third.

Along with the Varsity Eight, Syracuse took second place in the Novice Four and Varsity Four. The Varsity Four improved its time by 24 seconds.

After dominating No. 20 Boston, winning four of the six races, the Orange faced much stiffer competition Friday. Yale won each of the five races it entered and never was truly challenged. The Bulldogs won the Cayuga Cup for the sixth-straight time.

"There were six boats out there for us today, and I am very happy with their performances," SU head coach Kris Sanford said. "The Varsity Eight were really gutsy today. They rowed hard and they rowed high. At the beginning, they were up on Yale for about 20 strokes. That was good, I will take it for now."

Preseason prognostications suggested this would be a rebuilding year for the Orange, which replaced four members of the Varsity Eight lineup that helped win third place at the Big East Championship last season. The current Varsity Eight boat features three sophomores and three seniors.

The inexperience can be seen in other boats as well. The Varsity Four displayed at the Cayuga Cup contained one junior, two sophomores and two freshmen, none of whom rowed for the Varsity Four last season.

As a whole, the Orange's roster contains six seniors and 20 freshmen. Rowing freshmen usually come into a collegiate program without ever training for rowing year-round. This makes their first year at the college level integral to their physical preparation and technical skill development - areas, according to Sanford, that still need work.

Continued...

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