What to know about Syracuse men’s rowing in 2025
Syracuse men’s rowing begins its 2025 campaign in California on Saturday. Meghan Hendricks | Senior Staff Photographer
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
Syracuse men’s rowing concluded the 2024 season with a seventh-place finish in the Ten Eyck Trophy standings — tied for its highest finish in over 20 years — and a sixth-place finish in the IRA National Championship.
In the summer, five Orange athletes compete in the Men’s Rowing World Championship, including Aidan Monataro, Niki Strauss, Payton Gauthier, Mack Carr, and Luke Dunleavy.
Heading into the 2025 campaign, SU looks to build off last spring’s success as it travels to Redwood Shores, California, to start the year Saturday.
Here’s everything to know about Syracuse men’s rowing before it starts its spring season:
Preseason recap
The Orange’s fall season consisted of the Head of the Charles regatta in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Cornell Fall Invite in Ithaca, New York.
At the Head of the Charles, the varsity 8 placed sixth overall behind Cambridge University Boat Club, Harvard, Dartmouth, Washington, Harvard and Princeton. The Orange finished 14.279 seconds off the lead and 11.796 seconds from the Crimson.
Thirteen days later in Ithaca, the Orange’s second and third varsity 8s claimed victory in their races, defeating both Dartmouth and Cornell. Syracuse topped Dartmouth by 3.8 seconds in the 2V8 and by 9.1 seconds in the 3V8.
“We did some good work in the fall, and we were competitive with the programs we want to be competitive with,” senior captain Lachlan Doust said. “We know lots of teams are strong this year, and we know we had to put in a lot of work over the winter if you want to be competitive.”
Schedule breakdown
SU begins the 2025 season ranked ninth in the IRCA/IRA Varsity 8+ rankings. It travels to the West Coast this weekend to compete in Redwood Shores. The varsity 8 will race against California Rowing Club and No. 8 Stanford Saturday and No. 3 Brown Sunday. The second varsity 8 will also face UC Berkeley’s freshmen 8 and Brown Saturday as well as Stanford Sunday.
“(It would be) a step in the right direction, just knowing that we can maintain good racing, even when we have races so close together,” junior captain Cole Nordby said of SU’s season-opener. “I think one of the goals since we had such a promising winter training block, is just proving to ourselves … we can have good racing, solid three races back to back to back.”
On April 19, the Orange will compete in Annapolis, Maryland, against No. 17 Navy and No. 14 Cornell to try to win their fifth consecutive Goes Trophy. Syracuse already posted a better time than Cornell at the Cornell Fall Invite last November.
The next week, on April 26-27, Syracuse heads to Lake Morey, Vermont, to race No. 6 Dartmouth for the Packard Cup. The Orange rowed against the Big Green twice in the fall in Cambridge and Ithaca. Dartmouth is also currently the second highest-ranked opponent Syracuse will see in 2025.
“When we head to Lake Morey and race Dartmouth, it’s always a bit of a rivalry,” Doust said. “We always get to see how we compare to the rest of the field when we race Dartmouth, because we know they’re strong competitors, so I really look forward to that one.”
That same weekend, the Orange will race No. 12 Boston University for the Conlan Cup and No. 13 Georgetown in the Lake Morey Invite. SU will then wait for three weeks to return to action in the Eastern Sprints in Worcester, Massachusetts, on May 18. Then, if Syracuse qualifies, it’ll compete at the IRA Championship in Cooper River, New Jersey, beginning on May 30.
Players to watch
Lachlan Doust: Doust, an Australian native, didn’t race last spring due to injuries. However, in Syracuse’s last two fall seasons, Doust served as the seventh seat of the varsity 8. He also represented Australia in the 2023 U23 World Rowing Championships, where he helped his country to a fourth-place finish in the V8. The senior captain is primed for a bounceback season in 2025.
Nick Bryan: A decorated freshman from New Zealand, Bryan took a gap year last season to row at Leander Club in England for 18 months. After arriving at SU, he raced in the Head of the Charles in the fifth seat of the varsity 8. In February, Bryan broke the Syracuse program record with a two-kilometer time of 5:53.9, beating the previous time of 5:55.3 set in 2018.
“He’s dangerous,” Doust said of Bryan. “He’s got a lot of power to him, he’s a solid kid. I look forward to seeing what you can do in the spring.”
Aidan Montanaro: Montanaro represented the United States in the 2024 World Rowing Championships this summer, winning bronze in the U19 4+. Montanaro helped the U.S. reach its best finish in the event since 2018. In 2023, he also won silver in the men’s youth 8 at the Head of the Charles for Saugatuck Rowing Club.
