Syracuse wins Petite Final, races in 2 Grand Finals at Eastern Sprints
Syracuse men's rowing collected two fourth-place finishes in Grand Finals and finished first in a Petite Final at the Eastern Sprints Sunday. Meghan Hendricks | Senior Staff Photographer
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Syracuse men’s rowing competed for the first time in May, rowing in the Eastern Sprints in Worcester, Massachusetts. The No. 10 Orange brought out four boats to race against some of the stiffest competition they’ve seen all year.
In the morning slate, the varsity 8 raced against No. 3 Harvard, No. 9 Yale, No. 15 Georgetown and No. 18 Columbia. Syracuse placed third with a time of 5.45.296. Harvard finished first, besting the Orange by about four seconds. Three new faces raced for the varsity 8, as seniors Isaac Evans and Jack Gorman, as well as freshman Aidan Montanaro switched over from 2V8.
The 2V8 boat raced against No. 6 Brown, No. 9 Yale, No. 12 Wisconsin and Georgetown. The Orange defeated Georgetown by 18.2 seconds when the squads last met in April. They finished their morning race with a first-place finish, clocking in at 5:47.789 to move on to the 2V8 Grand Final. Freshman Lucas Tan coxswained the 2V8 after racing the third boat in the last meet.
The 3V8 boat went up against Harvard, No. 4 Dartmouth, No. 20 Navy and No. 21 Holy Cross. Syracuse had lost to Dartmouth by 4.58 seconds but beat Navy by almost 25 seconds in their previous matchups. Coxswained by junior Sam Fernandez, 3V8 finished in third with a time of 5:48.323, as Harvard finished in first by just under two seconds. 4V8 competed with No. 5 Princeton, Yale, No. 8 Penn, Navy and Wisconsin and placed second with a time of 5:55.407. The Orange moved on to the Grand Final slightly behind the Bulldogs.
In the afternoon session, 4V8 raced against Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Penn and Brown in the Grand Final, where they finished in fourth with a time of 5:56.675. The Orange were about seven seconds behind the first-place Bulldogs.
3V8 raced in the Petite Final against Brown, No. 13 Boston University, Holy Cross, No. 14 Cornell and Wisconsin. The Orange finished in first with a time of 5:51.905, over three seconds ahead of the second-place Terriers.
In the 2V8 Grand Final, the Orange went up against Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Penn and Dartmouth. Syracuse finished fourth with a time of 5:47.884. Harvard claimed the top spot, finishing about eight seconds ahead of the Orange, who also trailed the Tigers and Big Green.
The V8 capped off the event racing in the Petite Final along with No. 11 Northeastern, Wisconsin, BU, Georgetown and Cornell. The Orange finished in second with a time of 5:42.895, over two seconds behind the first-place Huskies.
The Orange finished their weekend with a Petite Final runner-up for V8, a Grand Final appearance for 2V8, a Petite Final win for 3V8 and a Grand Final appearance for 4V8. The IRA Championships go from May 30 through June 1 in Cooper River, New Jersey.
