The pair with was rowed by seniors Pete Hausman and Dan
Hanavan, both with a 1977 3V Sprints Championship to their credit. Their were seven other crews in their event,
including what looked to be the top two guys from USC’s varsity eight. Hanavan and Hausman rowed to a very
comfortable second place in Thursday’s heats, setting themselves up for a good
race in Friday’s reps. Rowing well
within themselves, the SU pair with cox “had swing and the rowing was
effortless.” They cruised into the
finals, thereby ensuring every SU varsity crew would have a shot at the medals.
With Hausman stroking and Hanavan in bow, the pair were
facing the same stiff headwind as the four with, but with two fewer oars to
carry cox Jimmy Regan to the finish line.
If the rowing was effortless in the reps, it was anything but in the
first 500 of the finals as they came close to suffering the indignity of being
passed by the officials’ launches. Fortunately for the three Orangemen, this
was going to be a long race and they’d have ample time to sort things out. That they did, smoothing things out in the
second 500, and from there moving steadily up from fifth place into third. The result was ample proof of the depth of
the program, and boded well for the eights.
Drew Harrison’s freshman eight was saddled with the
unenviable task of continuing the program’s three-year reign atop the IRA
podium, and their path was going to be anything but easy. Their heat more resembled a final than a
Thursday morning qualifier, with five of the six crews in the heat expected to
be in the finals. Coach Harrison opined
“The heat is certainly stacked, without a shadow of a doubt, but it really
doesn’t matter to our approach. If we’re
to win, we have to take it away from other people – sometime.” The crews his guys
would have to “take it away from” in their heat were Northeastern, Cal,
Cornell, Navy, and Brown.
The heat was a close-run thing, with the Huskies crossing
the line in front of SU by less than a half-length. The other crews seemed disinterested in
racing for the lone qualifying spot, with Cornell another six seconds back the
closest of the also-rans. With the loss
in the heats, Harrison’s crew would face off with Dartmouth, Penn, Cal, and
Brown in Friday morning’s repechage.
Conditions Friday morning were distinctly unusual for
Onondaga, with a stiff tailwind making for fast times. The freshman won their rep, and would head to
the line for a chance to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive IRA
championship. The competition was going
to be fierce; although Wisconsin hadn’t gotten on the water till April 18, it
had
managed to post an impressive third at the Sprints behind the second-place
Huskies from Northeastern. Given the late
start for the Badgers and their result at the Sprints, they would almost
certainly be among the medalists.
SU led off the line, and for almost the
entire race, with the biggest gap at the thousand where the
Orange crew had open water on Wisco.
Towards the end of the third five hundred Wisconsin started a charge
that brought them even with Syracuse; unable to push thru, Wisconsin found
itself side-by-side with the Orange coming up to the finish line. For the last few strokes of the race, the
leader was the last crew to take a stroke, both boats surging into and then out
of the lead. The final margin was a
fraction of a second, requiring officials to review the finish line photo.
The streak had to send sometime, and it did in 1979. Wisco ended Coach Drew Harrison’s string with
a close win over the Orange, with Northeastern in third.
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