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.

‘I would say that the freshmen eight rowed a strong first 1,000 meters,’ Sanford said. ‘It was relaxed, yet gutsy. But when it came time to shift, well, they shifted, but they did not do it very well. That is what we need to work on.’

Even though the Varsity Eight’s performance was not technically sound, the group slashed 10 seconds off its best time. Since the freshmen typically compete solely in the novice class, better times in the Novice Four and Eight bode well for the Orange’s future.

The Orange’s second-tier Varsity Eight finished third, but it cut 10 seconds off its best time. Like the lead Varsity Eight, the second-tier boat lacks experience, containing only two seniors.

Halfway through the spring cup season, Syracuse has notched two victories over traditional rowing powers and will look to continue their promising spring season with two more home meets on Onondaga Lake. Syracuse hosts Pennsylvania and Northeastern April 11 for the Orange Cup and then finishes the cup campaign with the O’Leary Cup against No. 10 Harvard and Dartmouth.

‘We definitely accomplished our goals today,’ Todd said. ‘We just took off on Cornell right from the beginning of the race. We were powerful and strong. We walked right through.’

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Published on April 5, 2009 at 12:00 pm