SU Men vs. Princeton & Georgetown (Scrimmage) - Saturday, March 31

from Coach Dave Reischman:

The schedule for Saturday's scrimmage (at Princeton) is tentatively as follows:

First session:
8:40 am: Varsity
8:50 am: Frosh
900 am: 2nd Varsity
910 am: 2nd Frosh

Second session:
Start somewhere between 11:30 and Noon.I will get you more accurate info as it becomes available.We start the morning with a full blown 2000m race. At the end of that the crews will paddle back up to the 1000m mark and come back down the course again. After a short break to grab some food at the boathouse the guys will go back out on the water. Generally the coaches get together after the morning session and decide what we want to do for the 2nd session. Last year it was 3 x 750 meters.

We will let you know ASAP if racing will be broadcast.

RACE BROADCAST - SU Women vs. Cornell, Boston University & Rutgers

Syracuse Alumni Rowing Association (SARA) is excited to provide live audio broadcasting of Men's and Women's races. Our announcers will be following the races in the chase launches, providing a stroke by stroke account of the races - from the start until the finish. Below are the details of races for:

Saturday, March 31, 2012
8:30 a.m. EST

via Phone/Conference Line: 712-432-1496 4861# (you can bypass announcing your name by pressing #)

Race Schedule
8:30 a.m - V8 - Boston Univ. vs. SU
10:30 a.m. - V8 (2nd Place vs. 2nd Place)

8:35 a.m. - V8 - Cornell vs. Rutgers
10:45 a.m. - V8 - (1st Place vs. 1st Place)

8:50 a.m - 2V8 - Boston Univ. vs. SU
11:00 a.m. - 2V- (2nd Place vs. 2nd Place)

8:55 a.m. - 2V8 - Cornell vs. Rutgers
11:05 a.m. - 2V8 (1st Place vs. 1st Place)

9:10 a.m - V4 - Boston Univ. vs. Syracuse
11:20 a.m. - V4 (2nd Place vs. 2nd Place)

9:15 a.m. - V4 - Cornell A vs. Rutgers and Cornell B
11:25 a.m. - V4 (1st Place vs. 1st Place)

9:30 a.m. - 3V8 Boston Univ. vs. Syracuse
11:40 a.m. - 3V8 (2nd Place vs. 2nd Place)

9:35 a.m. - 3V8 - Cornell vs. Rutgers
11:45 a.m. - 3V8 (1st Place vs. 1st Place)

SU Women Race at Clemson


story courtesy of SU Athletics
CLEMSON, S.C. - The Syracuse women’s rowing spring racing season began on a positive note Saturday with strong finishes at Clemson. The Tigers hosted the Orange, Boston University, Iowa, Indiana, Marist and Purdue at its Lake Hartwell race course after SU used the preceding week to train in South Carolina. “The races went about as I expected they would,” head coach Justin Moore said. “It is a challenge for us to find the right balance during this week of training, our first on the water, between rowing a high volume of base miles and prepping for a race against top 20 competition.” The Orange varsity 8+ finished third out of seven in a time of 6:51.57, behind Clemson and Indiana’s dead heat first-place time of 6:46.21. The five-second gap, marked a 10-second improvement from the Orange’s time vs. Clemson last season and a 5-second improvement vs. Indiana. Last season, the Orange finished five seconds behind BU, but finished 10 seconds ahead of the fifth-place Terriers in this season’s race. The varsity 8+ boat was comprised of Allison Todd, Emma Karpowicz, Maggie McCrudden, Anna Kasycki, Miranda Williams, Emma Basher, Carmen Failla, Tiffany Macon and Caroline Habjan. “I felt the fatigue of the double-training sessions may evidence itself in the later portions of the race and this was the case,” Moore said. “I feel good about what we did in the first 1,000 meters of the race. We showed that we have the speed to compete. Now we have to work on executing a full race.” The second varsity 8+ finished third in its race as well with a time of 6:55.57, behind first-place Iowa (6:52.81) and third-place Clemson (6:53.31). The first varsity 4+ posted a second-place finish for SU in a time of 8:02.89, behind Clemson (7:51.46). The Orange’s varsity 4+ was comprised of Samantha Hart, Macey Miller, Ashley Marsh, Laura Adams and Sienna DeSantis. Syracuse’s novice 8+ also finished second behind Clemson (7:11.30) in a time of 7:18.56. “With the youth of our group, we feel that our learning curve is going to be steep and that there are much faster and more complete races ahead of us,” Moore said. The Orange returns home to host Boston University, Cornell and Rutgers on Saturday at the James A. Ten Eyck Memorial Boathouse.

Spring Racing on the Horizon!

Mark your calendars!

The SU men will scrimmage Princeton and Georgetown, at Princeton on March 31, 2012. Racing will be broadcast with a LIVE VIDEO FEED courtesy of Princeton Crew. (THANK YOU PRINCETON!)

Below are race details:

As with the last few years, the 1V at race at 9AM, 1F at 9:10, and 2V at 9:20.

The afternoon session will start at around noon.

The footage will be available through Princeton's website at http://www.princetoncrew.com/

1977 - the year that wasn't - Part Five, the Sprints and Packard Cup

Sunday morning, May 15, the other crews took to the water. The morning heats were a success for SU as, for the first time on record, all three eights qualified for the Grand Finals. But qualifying was one thing; defeating crews that had beaten them handily earlier in the season was an entirely different matter. Once again, Harvard won the Varsity event followed by Penn and Cornell with Syracuse just out of the medals in fourth. While SU had indeed gotten faster since the meeting in Boston, Harvard had done that, and more. Notably, the third place medalists were none other than the Big Red, and while they had beaten SU again, this time the margin had shrunk to barely a second. SU had made up a full two lengths on Cornell in three weeks.

The big boat wasn’t the only crew that was faster. The JV eight, stroked by Bob Devlin closed a bit of its gap to Harvard in finishing fifth in the Grands. Even more impressive was the performance of the fourth-place Syracuse freshman eight, which finished just over a length behind first-place Penn while beating Harvard by a second. Princeton and Yale, silver and bronze medalists, both finished within a half-second of Penn. Drew’s crew had gained twelve seconds on the Crimson in a month.

With exams and the Sprints behind them, the crews were looking forward to the camaraderie of IRA camp at the Longbranch Boathouse. This was the time when Syracuse Crew made big improvements – with school over, great weather, and intense but shorter workouts, all focus was on the Regatta.

But before the IRA, SU would take on Dartmouth and MIT at the Packard Cup in Hanover, NH. 1977 wasn’t a great year for the Big Green and MIT’s excellent crews from the early seventies had graduated most of their horses. The result was the SU Varsity taking the Packard Cup, defeating MIT by nine seconds and Dartmouth by over thirteen.

1977 - the year that wasn't, Part Four - Brown and the Saturday Night Sprints

The week before exams saw SU take to the road to race Brown and what was a very strong crew from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The Varsity continued to improve, making technical refinements that were beginning to pay off. The Seekonk River, always a tough course with wind, tides, and current all working to confuse and confound coxswains, was solved by SU Varsity cox’n Murray Lukoff, as he brought the Orange across the finish over a length in front of Bruno, with Coast Guard another length back. This was a bit of revenge for the Coasties’ three-second win over SU in the JV eight race, with Brown back by just a bit of open water. The freshman from Onondaga made it down the course in fine fashion, dominating both of their opponents to win by over five seconds over Brown. The third varsity and second frosh stayed home, as there weren’t any Brown or Coast Guard entries for them to race.

Things were coming together. The good weather and lots of miles were beginning to show their effect, as both the Varsity and Freshman crews were picking up more speed every week.

Heading into the Sprints, SU’s Varsity was looking strong. The crew was coming together, steadily making the small technical improvements it needed to win. This “technical deficit” hadn’t prevented Drew Harrison’s freshman crews from ever-increasing levels of success; although according to Lyvers, technique wasn’t “the highest priority in Drew’s mind, but from a physical standpoint he really got the most out of a crew.” That was freshman rowing but for the varsity, pure pulling wasn’t enough. On the varsity level, the oarsmen were rowing against more technically proficient crews. Syracuse had to put out more energy to overcome the other crews’ advantage in efficiency. Good enough technique wasn’t good enough when rowing against the likes of Cornell and Harvard, but over the course of the season things were coming along.

In 1977, the Sprints were again held in Princeton, with the Third Varsity and Second Frosh racing off the night before in what was then an informal event that went by the sobriquet “Saturday Night Sprints.” Not an official part of the EARC Championships, this event was organized and put on primarily by the coaches. SU’s second frosh, rowing under a 30 for most of the 2000 meters, finally raised the rating and came charging up on Northeastern in the last 500, but it was too little too late. NU won by less than a half second. SU’s third varsity, stroked by IRA freshman champion Rick Tremblay, rowed a very aggressive race plan and were rewarded with a Sprints Championship and betting shirts from Penn and Harvard. Years later, Tremblay recalled:

“Neil and coach Sanford played significant roles to enable the SU 3rd varsity boat to be Eastern Sprints Champions (Harvard and UPenn were the other entries.)

We decided to go out strong at the beginning of the race to take a significant lead.
Then Neil took over. He made a sharp turn to starboard to cut off Harvard. Harvard couldn’t figure out how to get around us before the finish line. I’m pretty sure we won the race by open water, at least that’s the way I remember it.

Then the most critical part of the race was Coach Sanford convincing Harry Parker to allow our little lane shifting and consider the race legal. Rumor has it Bill treated Harry to a steak dinner later that weekend.”

With Tremblay in the SU third varsity were cox Neil Prete, Dan Hanavan, fellow IRA frosh champion Pete Gaines, Pete Hausman, Andy Papp, Walter MacVittie, Fred Gliesing, and Bill Samios. Hanavan also has great memories of the win. He remembers: “looking over to the shore after the race at the finish line. The SU crew team cheering, wearing the bright orange SU suit jackets !! What style.”

1977 - the year that wasn't, Part Three

The weather gods were kind to the Orange during the week after the trip to Boston, with unseasonably warm weather and placid conditions on Onondaga. The freshmen began the week with Coach Harrison’s dreaded Tour of the Lake, a circumnavigation of Onondaga that began with Drew loudly encouraging his second boat, proclaiming them Crimson Beaters. Thus began what was to be one of the fastest freshman Tours ever recorded as the first boat sought to erase a bit of the sting from the loss while the now-very-confident second frosh cut every turn and sought every advantage. The Tour ended with the first boat in front, and two very tired crews. Years later, stroke Art Sibley recalled that after the row, Harrison told the first boat they would be fine, they just needed to work every day to close the gap a bit at a time.

The Goes Cup was another disappointing race for the Varsity. Despite the beautiful conditions on the Cayuga Inlet and a fast start by the Orange that saw them with the lead well into the second five hundred meters, Cornell took the Cup with Syracuse nine seconds back in second and Navy trailing. The third varsity managed to take Cornell by just over a second, the freshmen and second freshman eights won convincingly, and the JV also took second, a bit more than a length behind Navy as Cornell finished third. The frosh win and the two varsity eight seconds were enough to give SU the points it needed to win the Norman Stagg Trophy for best overall performance.

Commenting after the race, Coach Sanford said: “We were rowing at altogether too high a rate during the middle of the race (36-36 ½) and it seemed as though we ran into a brick wall during the final 800 meters.”

The Orange’s next competition was Rutgers at home in Syracuse. The Scarlet Knights were going through a low period, with a thin roster and dearth of talent. Without enough athletes to enter a JV, Rutgers was clearly outclassed by the deep Syracuse crew. The Varsity won in a laugher, with Rutgers finishing more than 23 seconds behind the Orange. The first freshman race wasn’t quite as bad, although Harrison’s crew did win by just under ten seconds.

Women Alums Step Up for the Truck




Following the harrowing brake failure of the SU Women's truck (while pulling a full trailer - thankfully uphill!) the decision was made by Coach Justin Moore that a new towing vehicle just could not be put off any longer. SU Women's Assistant Coaches Alicea Kochis and Andrea Buch were in the vehicle during the time of the failure and were able to maneuver the truck off the road safely.


A call to arms was made to the SU Women Alums to help offset this unexpected cash outflow. The university fronted the money but the expectation is that the truck must be paid for by the alumnae.

A huge shout-out to the following alums who initially stepped up to help out:

Lynne Della Pella Pascale came to the rescue with a multi-year financial commitment. Lynne is pictured in the vintage photo above - far left standing, with the red bandana.

Other contributions were made by
Maura McEnaney, a SU coxswain who wrote in her contributing note, "I once landed a boat on the dock and crushed it, so I am happy to help with the truck"
Bonnie Nault
Diane Kulpinski

Thank you to these four women for leading the charge!

So the update is $1,125.00 in and $18,875 to go.

Here is a photo of Coach Kochis, safe and sound in the new towing vehicle for SU Women's Crew


Women alums....
We need you.

Please consider a donation to help offset the cost of this non-glamorous, but extremely important equipment purchase. Donations can be made by writing a check to Syracuse Women's Rowing and sent to Coach Justin Moore at:

Manley Field House, 1301 E. Colvin St., Syracuse, NY 13244

Thank you!

1977 - the year that wasn't, Part Two

There were six seniors on the squad in 1977, but for whatever reason, Lyvers was the only senior who had come into the program with high school rowing experience who was still on the team in ’77. Recalling the foundation they had built, Mark said “there were six people who went all the way through the four years. Not all were on the varsity, but there was a core group of non-recruited people who did something for the rowing program while they were there, and their passion and love for the sport brought success.” One of those seniors, John Watson, would deliver a remarkable - and very rare - performance at the IRA.

The 1977 varsity eight was a pretty stable boat. The lineup didn’t change after spring camp, the boat made up of medalists - and champions – from frosh crews in previous years. Still, despite the evident talent in the boat, early in the racing season it just didn’t seem to completely gel, to come together and make the leap from freshman to varsity national champion. It wasn’t a personality issue, as Lyvers remembers the crew had “good chemistry”; it certainly wasn’t a lack of power – the crew had that in spades. What was missing, what they needed to make the transition from fast freshman crews to winning at the varsity level was technique. In retrospect Lyvers deemed a lack of finesse, technical proficiency and polish were the limiting factors. Mark recalled the boat had a “tremendous amount of power…We won races by overpowering other crews, but that only got us so far when we got to elite level; we needed a different level of expertise. That was the difference maker in that crew. Physically, [we were] probably more powerful than any other crew in the nation but we lacked on the technical side.”

The team stayed at Longbranch for spring camp, trading the trip south and warmer weather for more water time. While it was typical early March weather for upstate New York (chilly, cloudy, and one day of steady rain), the snow held off and the crews piled up the miles. After breaking camp, SU’s first race was scheduled for early April in Boston, and the competition was none other than the legendary Harry Parker’s Harvard Crimson. Coach Sanford had been talking with Parker for several years about the possibility of an early season race as a way for both crews to test their speed. Things had finally come together in early 1977 with the coaches agreeing to a home-and-home. The 1977 race was held in Boston at the rather unique distance of 2500 meters. The race was lengthened to allow for Syracuse’s lack of water time, with Sanford requesting, and Parker agreeing to the longer course.

While the day started out well enough with the second freshman eight rowing steadily away from Harvard for a close 2 1/2 second win, they were to be the only crew to head home with new shirts in their bags. Harvard managed to sweep the rest of the events, defeating the JV and first freshman by more than ten seconds. Due to an injury, the first frosh had a last minute lineup change that resulted in only one row for the crew before race day. The Varsity event was considerably closer, with SU trailing the Crimson by 3.2 seconds, proving it could compete with the cream of the EARC.

1977, the Year that Wasn't

We're starting another chapter in the history of Syracuse Rowing; this one is 1977; the Year that Wasn't

here's the first section...


1977 - The year that wasn’t

Nineteen seventy-seven was going to be The Year. The Year that Bill Sanford’s Varsity finally brought the IRA championship back to Longbranch after 57 long years. The freshman under Drew Harrison had won the Regatta the previous year after a second in 1975 and a third in ‘74. The program was growing too, with three full varsity eights and more than two freshman boats on the water when what passed for a Syracuse ‘spring’ began. The talent was there, and the big eight, led by captain and stroke Mark Lyvers, was determined to deliver on its promise.

Lyvers had been in the ’74 frosh eight, which had finished third behind Cornell and Wisconsin at the IRA. The atmosphere at the end of the 1974 IRAs was exciting; the varsity had improved dramatically from previous years and the team had grown in numbers and commitment. Half of the freshmen stuck around for the summer and rowed in the Chargers program, and their effort paid off ; SU’s ’75 varsity eight boated four sophomores.

Apparently this wasn’t what the upperclassmen expected. According to Lyvers, the insertion of four sophomores into the varsity eight created a bit of tension between those new guys and those who had been there before. Before 1975, there’d been a sense – not quite an unwritten rule or tradition, more of a feeling that you earned your spot – at least in part – through seniority. Upperclassmen somehow ‘deserved’ those varsity seats more than sophomores, a concept that was foreign to the new guys on the varsity squad.

Whether it was the tension, a lack of maturity, or just not enough talent, the varsity didn’t really come together as a crew in 1975. 1976 was considerably better. SU had done very well in the Cup races, sweeping all events in the Goes Cup, winning the Varsity and Frosh races against Rutgers and both Varsity races over Brown. Despite all that success, when the Championship Regattas began, something seemed amiss. The Varsity failed to make the finals at the Sprints, but recovered somewhat for the Packard Cup where they defeated Dartmouth and MIT.

At the IRA, that spark seemed to have dimmed again, with the varsity finishing fourth in their heat. In the repechage on Friday, Syracuse finished 1.8 seconds behind winner California, earning a spot in Saturday’s Grand Finals. But that was it; in a race won by the same California crew in a time of 6:31, SU finished last in 6:39.8.

The varsity’s performance in the Sprints and IRAs were undoubtedly affected by Lyvers’ previously-undiagnosed case of mononucleosis. The varsity stroke had been pushing hard all season, trying to battle through what seemed to be fatigue and exhaustion from training. The crew was working very hard, and everyone was spent after practice; as the stroke, Lyvers was also the heart and soul of the boat, and he expected a lot from himself. While Lyvers battled through the season, it is apparent in hindsight that the illness had taken its toll, and races on consecutive days left no time for recovery.

Ivy league recruiting

If you've been wondering about the state of college athletics, and maybe marveling at Harvard's recent top-25 basketball rating, or last year when Yale held the top ranking in NCAA D1 men's hockey for two months, Cornell's wrestling team was number one in the country the entire season, or the year before when the Big Red men's basketball team made it to the Sweet Sixteen, wonder no more.

Turns out the Ivies are handing out big money to athletes that are heavily recruited by big time NCAA D1 programs...and some are accepting aspiring students with GPAs and test scores that aren't exactly Ivy League.

An excerpt from an article in today's NYT is below; emphasis added;

"The Ivy League does not award athletic scholarships, but led by endowment-rich members like Harvard, Yale and Princeton, the conference has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in additional need-based aid — with most of the universities all but eliminating student loans and essentially doubling the size of grants meant for middle-income families.

The financial-aid enhancements have had a profound effect on the quality of athletic recruits. Rosters are now fortified with top athletes who would have turned down the Ivy League in the past because they would have been asked to pay $20,000 to $30,000 per year more than at other colleges.

“We’re seeing a significant change in the caliber of the student-athlete,” said Steve Bilsky, the University of Pennsylvania’s athletic director, one of more than 50 Ivy League administrators and coaches interviewed. “It’s not even the same population because the pool has widened. We see a considerable number of student-athletes turning down athletic scholarships from places like Stanford, Northwestern or Duke to come to Penn.”

Andy Noel, Cornell’s athletic director, said: “Eighty percent of our best recruits in the current freshman class would not have come here 10 years ago because we couldn’t match other schools’ offers. The impact has been enormous. And will continue to be.”

A recruited Ivy League athlete must have the academic credentials to survive the stringent and highly selective admissions process at each institution. Coaches have little sway in the admissions process, although they do provide a list of potential athletes to admissions officials. Across the league, about 13 percent of each university’s incoming class is composed of athletes chosen from coaches’ lists.

But the new, plentiful financial aid awards have permitted Ivy League coaches to compete head-to-head in the same recruiting arena as some big-time scholarship programs. And in sports like baseball, soccer, wrestling or lacrosse, where most athletic scholarships are split into partial scholarships worth a half or a quarter of the cost to attend, it is not uncommon for an Ivy League financial aid package to be superior to the athletic scholarship.

At most Ivy League institutions, families earning less than about $65,000 annually are now asked to make no contribution to their children’s education. Families making $65,000 to $180,000 might be expected to pay 10 percent to 18 percent of their annual income on a sliding scale. Ten years ago, such families would have been expected to pay almost twice as much, and their child would probably have accumulated a debt of about $25,000 after four years."

National Champions - Part Five

This is the final installment of the first chapter of the new history of Syracuse rowing, entitled Mark of the Orange.

While the third 500 was the key, Street knew that Vic Michalson’s Brown was a very good headwind crew. This was shaping up to be a very long two thousand meters, and they’d have to go very, very hard to hold them off. After the effort of the third five hundred, that was a tall order indeed. Brown evidently knew it had to go early, as the SU lead was too big to overcome in the last thirty strokes. About ten strokes into the last five hundred, Street saw them begin to go. He told his crew “Here comes Brown, just relax.” Waiting for a few beats, the boat noticeably relaxed, the tension seemed to dissipate. Ozzie called the sprint, the rating came up, the boat was flying, and Brown’s push into the Syracuse lead halted, then reversed. With 20 strokes to go, the Orange bow was in front and moving away from Bruno. Those last twenty strokes, Henwood would say years later that he knew they would win, and despite the utter exhaustion, there was an incredible feeling of accomplishment, of joy. So much had gone into this six-and-a-half minutes, so many hours of training and so much effort and struggle, and now, in that instant, it was coming together just as they’d pictured it so many times.

As the Orange eight crossed the finish line, the stands erupted. The hometown crowd had watched and listened and cheered, dismay turning to exuberance as SU had driven through the field in that key third five hundred, held off Brown, then moved out again to win convincingly. Now, as the crew men waited their turn to pull into the awards dock, there were handshakes up and down the boat, back-slapping, yells of congratulations and a celebratory dive into Onondaga by Gerry Henwood. With bronze and silver medals awarded, SU pulled into the dock, Street called the ‘one foot, up and out’ and the oarsmen faced a roar from their coach, teammates, families, friends, and fans.

They had done it. They were IRA Varsity Champions.

For Sanford, the victory was sweet indeed. Walking down to the awards dock, he ran into the Herald-Journal’s Bob Snyder. Earlier, Sanford had heard Snyder was going to write Sanford’s epitaph if the Varsity didn’t come home with the trophy. Spotting Snyder, Sanford told him “Looks like you’re going to have to rewrite your story.”

Pedaling the short distance back to the boathouse from the finish line, Sanford recalled the difficult path they’d trod on the way to the podium. That opening loss to Harvard on a course shortened by a blizzard, the injury to Sibley, his decision to keep Street – at 146 pounds, by far the heaviest coxswain at the regatta – in the Varsity, the pressure to produce after two years of freshman championships, the prior year when he felt SU should have won. The memories flooded back, halted only when he pedaled up to the dock.

There, Ozzie Street was in full voice. Sanford remembers Street talking to the press, saying “I told everybody we had this thing back in April and nobody wanted to listen to me; now maybe in the future you’ll listen to me.” Recalling that moment, Sanford said “I can remember him going off and everybody laughing at him. He had a good time with it and he took full credit. He took full credit for it, which every one of them should have. But you’ve got a guy like (three man Andy) Mogish who sees a camera or a recorder and ducks away and he wouldn’t want to talk - and then you’d see (seven man) Bill Reid, who came out of his shell and he starts talking. The guy you couldn’t get that close to over the years, all the time he was feeling the same thing everybody else was. And he was a real big part of that whole thing.”

The crew threw Street into the river in celebration. And then they threw Sanford in too.

After 58 years, the Syracuse Varsity was finally back on top.

National Champions, part four

This is the fourth installment of the first chapter of Mark of the Orange 2 - the history of SU Rowing from 1962 to today.

Before the race, cox Ozzie Street and Sibley had discussed the crew’s weak point – the third 500. All season this had been a bit of a problem, and the other crews that had raced successfully against SU had usually made their move there. Sibley and Street decided they had to break that pattern. For the finals, the plan was to start well, stay among the leaders, then pull all out the stops in the third 500 and break away.

The finals featured Penn, Cornell, Northeastern, SU, Brown, and California with the Orange in “lucky lane five” (where Henwood, Street, and Sibley had been a year before when they won the second of Drew Harrison’s three consecutive IRA frosh titles). It turned out to be a classic Syracuse IRA race – a bit of chop, good headwind and a tight pack with no clear favorite.

“Are you ready? Ready all. Row!” They were off.

The pack was pretty tight off the line. Then it settled into a dogfight. Henwood felt a lot of splashing at the start. Then the pace settled, the legs started pounding down, and while the boat wasn’t the smoothest it had been, it was moving. It felt stronger and more powerful somehow, definitely different than the feeling in the heats and reps in the two days before.

The good feeling in the boat wasn’t felt by SU fans on the shore. Listening to the race announcer, they heard the Orange in fifth place after five hundred meters. Out in lane five, the conditions were somewhat rougher than the more-protected inside lanes, and that may have helped the near shore crews open up an early lead. But Syracuse was under-stroking the field at a 33, waiting for conditions to improve.

Coming to the thousand meter mark, the Orangemen were right where they wanted to be, behind Penn, Cornell, and Brown all in the inshore lanes, but well within striking distance. Cal wasn’t handling the conditions as well and seemed to be faltering just a bit, while Northeastern’s hard effort the day before in the heat seemed to have taken a toll; NU fell off the pace in the second five hundred.

Ahead at the finish line, the crowd may well have groaned upon hearing Syracuse was in fourth at the midpoint, but Sanford wasn’t concerned. He was thinking “just keep a steady pace as the water gets better, up your stroke and you’re going to go faster and faster and so at the 1,000 meter mark we were in fourth place and then we just went through the rest of them in the last 1,000 just by swinging and rhythm and taking the stroke to a 34-35 as the water got better. And we were long as hell. We were the longest crew out there and into that headwind that paid off because then they just went by – just motored away.”

The Orange were determined to make this their strength; for weeks they’d been focusing on driving through the third 500, and the crew dug in. As the Orange entered the third five hundred, from the bow seat Henwood saw the engine room in the middle of the boat “moving a wall of water with each stroke”. With the powerful Purdy, Evancie, Shamlian and Townsley driving the boat into the headwind, they started to move away from Penn and Cornell. Halfway thru that 500, SU had broken clear of Penn and Cornell, leaving Northeastern, and Cal further back. The power kept coming, and with 500 to go it was SU in front of Brown by almost a length.

Syracuse had gone from well back in fourth to well out in the lead in just five hundred meters. The Orangemen had taken the worst part of their race, that dread third five hundred, when the legs are screaming and there’s so far to go and they had made it theirs.

Christmas is coming!

First published in 1963, Mark of the Oarsmen is a narrative history of Syracuse University rowing from 1885 to 1960. SARA has orchestrated the second printing of Mark of the Oarsmen and is now available for alumni and friends of Syracuse rowing. The newly printed 400 page / 80 photo hardcover book will be shipped to you direct from the Ingram Press for the cost of $39.95 (this price includes shipping).

This book is an absolute must read for anyone who has pulled an oar for Syracuse. Plan ahead...this makes a great holiday gift!

“Ten Eyck’s varsity crew dashed off to a beautiful start, managed to hold a three foot lead over the Sailors at the first eight mile.
Navy began to come up.
Rammi raised the Syracuse beat.
Stroke for stroke, the two crews races together until a few yards away from the finish, Syracuse with a mighty surge shot out in front by a quarter boat length and won." - Excerpt from Mark of the Oarsmen





National Champions! Part Three

Despite having to work their way into the Grands via the repechage, Varsity bowman Gerry Henwood and the rest of the crew knew their boat was comprised of guys who had won at the IRAs before in Drew Harrison’s victorious 1976 and 1977 crews, along with seniors Bill Reid, Andy Mogish, future Olympian Bill Purdy, Tom Evancie, and Dave Townsley who all had won silver as freshmen. If anything, the reps had helped the crew get just a bit more racing experience, a big help after the late-season injury to sophomore stroke Art Sibley had resulted in a line-up shift for the Packard Cup against Dartmouth

Weather for the finals featured a headwind causing the first thousand to be either “pretty” or “very” choppy depending on who’s recalling the conditions. The Varsity Grand Final would be the last race of the day, and there was lots of racing to be done before the closing event. In the first of the eights races, Drew Harrison’s freshman eight successfully defended its national championship, handily defeating Northeastern with Cornell coming in third. This was becoming a typical SU freshman performance, with the crew gaining considerable speed at IRA camp and defeating crews that had beaten them earlier in the season. Northeastern had won the Sprints, and the victory was sweet indeed for the Orange frosh. As the bemedaled and beaming freshman eight pulled away from the awards dock, the finish line crowd roared its approval of the first of what they hoped would be an Orange sweep of the eights. The freshmen had delivered, now it was up to the JV and Varsity.

Alas, while the JV was able to finish with a podium spot, it was not the top place. Capturing bronze behind Penn in front followed by the Northeastern Huskies, the second eight acquitted itself well, staying in contention throughout the race in conditions that were slow – and getting slower as the head wind seemed to build.

With the small boats and lower eights out of the way, it was time for the marquee event – the Varsity Eights.