The Syracuse women’s rowing team battled chilly temperatures and variable headwinds on Onondaga Lake at the Orange Challenge Cup on Saturday. The University of Pennsylvania won the three-school event between the Quakers, Orange and Northeastern.

Syracuse’s finishes were scattered throughout the day, with a lone victory coming in the varsity four B race. That crew finished with a time of 8:46.4, ahead of Penn’s 9:01.7 and Northeastern’s 9:11.8.

The Orange varsity eight boat, led by coxswain Allison Todd, finished third. The crew’s time of 7:17.4 was exactly three seconds behind second place Northeastern and over seven seconds behind first place Penn.

The Orange took part in two other races, the second varsity eight and the varsity four, and finished second behind the Quakers in both of them. In the second varsity eight, the Orange trailed Penn by more than six seconds, 7:33.8 to 7:27.4. In the varsity four, the Orange finished with a time of 8:48.8 to Penn’s 8:35.4.

Both Penn and Northeastern competed in a third varsity eight race and a varsity four C. The Quakers defeated the Huskies in the third varsity eight (7:51.6 to 8:05.0) and the Huskies defeated the Quakers in the varsity four C (9:20.0 to 9:47.7).

Syracuse will travel to Boston, Mass. next Saturday for the Charles River Challenge.

-Compiled by Josh Hyber, contributing writer, [email protected] 

Published on April 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm