SU women’s rowing drops all 8 races at Redwood Shores Challenge
No. 11 Syracuse women’s rowing dropped all eight of its races at the Redwood Shores Challenge this weekend. Meghan Hendricks | Senior Staff Photographer
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No. 11 Syracuse women’s rowing battled No. 2 Stanford and No. 8 Cal throughout the weekend at the Redwood Shores Challenge, dropping all eight of its races. However, the Orange proved they could keep up against superior opponents.
On Saturday, SU deployed its top two varsity four and eight squads and came up well short of catching Stanford’s boats. The Orange (7:14.8) were bested by the Cardinal (6:57.4) in the 2V8 race by a weekend-high 17-second margin. The 2V4 didn’t go much better for Syracuse (8:04.0), while Stanford notched a 7:48.2 time.
SU saw some improvement with its first varsity 8, as its 6:53.4 finish fell 12 seconds shy of Stanford’s (6:41.4). The Orange’s first varsity 4 was undeniably its best showing on Saturday against the Cardinal, falling by five and a half seconds (7:46.9 vs. 7:41.4).
Although Saturday was an underwhelming day for the Orange, Sunday’s races were much closer, as every race’s margin was within three and a half seconds. The best performance of the day was the 1V4 when SU (7:09.7) ultimately fell behind Cal (7:07.4) by just over two seconds. The second varsity 4 was just as competitive as the first since the Golden Bears (7:07.4) barely squeaked past the Orange (7:09.7).
In the second varsity 8, Syracuse (6:32.4) was bested by California (6:29.8). While the largest gap of the day was the 1V8, the Orange were very close to the Golden Bears. SU’s 6:24.0 time was three and a half seconds slower than Cal’s (6:20.5).
The Orange were not only winless throughout the weekend, but they also haven’t won a race in over three weeks, when they won seven of 11 contests at the B1G/ACC/Ivy Dual. SU has one final opportunity to get back on track on April 26 before the ACC Championship. The task doesn’t get any easier for Syracuse in two weeks, since it will face No. 4 Princeton, No. 6 Tennessee and No. 14 Ohio State – which it has already faced this season – in Princeton, New Jersey.
