The SU Women opened the spring season today by winning back the Kittell Cup from Boston University as the Varsity Eight rowed through the Terriers and built a lead of close to two lengths of open water at the finish.
“(Coxswain) Lydia (Wong) said were down on the first stroke you could just feel every single person in the boat saying ‘not today,’ said stroke Natalie Mastracci, the junior from Thorold, Ontario. “We’re not being down today.”
On a beautifully sunny but sub-freezing Saturday morning in Syracuse, BU jumped out by a deck at the start on Onondaga Lake, but that lasted a matter of seconds. Looking smooth and strong in the inside lane, the Orange women blasted their way down the course. By the time the crews passed the boathouse with 500 meters to go, the race had been long been decided.
“They actually did start to move slightly when we were crossing the second 500 and we responded with out own move,” Wong, a senior from San Francisco said.
SU finished the 2,000 meter course in 6:46.66 to win the Kittell Cup for the first time in three years. BU’s time was 6:56.93.
“(Coxswain) Lydia (Wong) said were down on the first stroke you could just feel every single person in the boat saying ‘not today,’ said stroke Natalie Mastracci, the junior from Thorold, Ontario. “We’re not being down today.”
On a beautifully sunny but sub-freezing Saturday morning in Syracuse, BU jumped out by a deck at the start on Onondaga Lake, but that lasted a matter of seconds. Looking smooth and strong in the inside lane, the Orange women blasted their way down the course. By the time the crews passed the boathouse with 500 meters to go, the race had been long been decided.
“They actually did start to move slightly when we were crossing the second 500 and we responded with out own move,” Wong, a senior from San Francisco said.
SU finished the 2,000 meter course in 6:46.66 to win the Kittell Cup for the first time in three years. BU’s time was 6:56.93.
Head Coach Kris Sanford called it a great way to start the season. “…but we will never forget that it’s a long season and we have to build on our speed to be where we want to be by the end of the year.” Where that is, of course, is in the NCAA championship competition.
The opponents get tougher in a hurry, with top-ranked Yale among the competition at Ithaca next weekend.
“We want to go after those big crews,” Mastracci said. “We want be the ones to say Syracuse is here this year and we are going to show people who we are.”
And on this Saturday, what did Wong say to her crew as they powered across the finish line? “YYEEEAAAAHHHHHHH!”
3V (NOVICES) ALSO WINS; BU TAKES 2V8 AND VARSITY FOURS RACES
The opening race of the day also went to SU. Officially it was the third varsity race but it turns out both crews were made up of novices. “Our league – the Eastern Sprints league was the first in the country to pretty much get rid of novice rowing, “ Sanford explained. “So there is no more novice rowing. We did that because the NCAA does not recognize novice rowing and it gives a lot more flexibility to coaches.”
SU took the lead in that one and rowed on to win by a couple of lengths of open water in 7:14.00. BU finished in 7:23.33
The Terriers won the second varsity race by just over a length and won the varsity four and second varsity four races easily.
Fantastic!!!
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