Syracuse men’s rowing opens season winless at Redwood Shores
Syracuse men’s rowing began its season this weekend by failing to win a race at the Redwood Shores in Redwood Shores, Calif. Meghan Hendricks | Senior Staff Photographer
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Syracuse men’s rowing was ranked seventh in the IRA/IRCA polls to begin the season. After not playing last week, it fell to ninth but had the chance to climb back up, facing a gauntlet of high-ranked opponents in Redwood Shores, California.
“We haven’t raced at all … those rankings kind of don’t really mean anything for our team right now,” junior captain Cole Nordby said earlier this week. “Definitely don’t want to be at ninth. That’s not really somewhere we’re comfortable sitting.”
On Saturday, Syracuse’s V8 started the day racing against the California Rowing Club. The Orange were behind for most of the race but narrowed the gap in the end. However, they finished with a 6:02.0 time, falling just short as CRC finished at 5:59.8. The coxswain was freshman Lucas Tan.
The second V8 crew raced against the University of California freshmen team, whose V8 is the top-ranked team in the nation. The Orange had a slim lead to start the race, but the Golden Bears closed the gap near the halfway point. Cal regained the lead and never looked back once they were 500 meters from the finish, winning with a time of 6:06.3 to SU’s 6:10.4. Senior Katherine Kelly was the coxswain for the 2V8 boat.
In the afternoon session, the Orange faced a difficult test with their V8 and 2V8 taking on No. 3 Brown. Syracuse started out fast with V8 taking a four-seat lead, but its lead quickly dwindled, and Brown ended up five seats ahead by the midway point. The Bears kept their steady lead for the rest of the race and won with a time of 6:07.4 over the Orange, who posted a 6:13.3 time.
The second V8 then had its second race facing Brown’s 2V8. The boats were neck and neck for the first half of the race. Syracuse then took a slight lead and was ahead three-fourths through. But in the end, where the wind was heavier, Brown came back to win by less than a second with a 6:11.8 time to Syracuse’s 6:12.3.
Saturday was hot and cold for the Orange, as their V8 posted the second-lowest time for colleges in the morning session. In the afternoon, V8 had the worst time of all the colleges. The field included No. 1 Cal, No. 3 Brown, No. 7 Yale and No. 9 Stanford.
The Orange closed the weekend with both V8 and 2V8 taking on Stanford, whose V8 is ranked eighth in the country. V8 went first, where Stanford kept a one-seat lead for most of the race. Syracuse never caught up, as the Cardinal won with a 5:34.6 time, as SU lagged 1.4 seconds behind posting its best time of the week at 5:36.0. The 2V8 was also in the close race as they grabbed a two-seat lead at the start. Stanford found itself even with the Orange by the midway point and started to break away slightly. It then finished strong, winning 5:44.7 to 5:46.6, as Syracuse ended the week winless.
The last time SU faced Stanford was one year and one week ago, also in Redwood Shores. Syracuse won both the V8 and 2V8 matchups, posting times of 5:45.5 and 5:53.6, respectively, as it improved by about nine seconds from last year.
Next weekend, the Orange return to action, venturing to Annapolis on Saturday to face No. 14 Cornell and No. 17 Navy for the Goes Trophy.
