Coach's Comments on Princeton-Georgetown Scrimmage

Syracuse men's rowing head coach Dave Reischman has distributed his post-race report. Here are excerpts:

This is the sixth time we have started off our season with this scrimmage and I always feel like it is way too early to be racing. But I always come away reminded of its value for us. When Greg Hughes (Princeton Head Coach), Tony Johnson (Georgetown Head Coach), and I started talking about this race we felt just racing a 2K for your opening race and then loading the trailer and going home was not enough. The morning session was a 2K followed by a 1K, and in the afternoon session, we did four 750m races. In all the various races you could see crews from all three schools trying various tactics or points of emphasis—some successful and some not. My thanks to Greg and Tony for their adaptability and willingness to make this format work for the good of all.

You can find the USRowing Pre-Season National Poll HERE

You can find a recap with lineups on the Cuse.com site HERE

Varsity Eight:  We had two goals coming in to this race:  (1) Establish a strong rhythm on the shift down from our starting sequence, (2) Be stubborn in the middle 1500m of the race.  Like a lot of crews in this early season racing the first time we rowed our “race line-up” was in the paddle the night before. I thought we accomplished both of our goals.  Nobody likes to lose a boat race but the guys fought and didn’t back down when Princeton got out to an early lead.  I will take that this time of year. I thought we did a nice job of hanging tough with Princeton through the middle. Of the six-second margin, they managed about 4 seconds of it in the first and last 300m. The guys felt good about effort and we identified a few areas to work on during the next few weeks.

2nd Varsity Eight:  This crew had a rough go in the 2K racing and this is the very reason I like this format. There were some young guys in this crew with not a lot of collegiate racing experience, and the excitement of being side by side with another crew resulted in a very frantic/scrambled rhythm. Coach Cottingham sat them down in the break between the two sessions, got them refocused, and they were a different crew in the afternoon session. 

Third and Fourth Varsity Eights:  Both of these crews are coached by Coach Stangel and they both had really good races in the 2K.  Both crews had aggressive starts and were able to get out to about 3/4 of a length lead in the first 500m of the race.  From their they both did a good job of controlling their races and countering the various pushes by the Princeton Crews.  A lot of people in these two races experiencing their first collegiate racing and did a very nice job of wearing the Orange racing jersey for the first time.

Princeton-Syracuse-Georgetown in 1V and 2V

The Syracuse men's rowing team kicked off the 2014 racing season today with its annual scrimmage against Princeton and Georgetown on Lake Carnegie.

Princeton's 1V won the 2,000-meter morning piece in a time of 6:05.0. Syracuse took second, outpacing Georgetown 6:10.9 to 6:26.9. The order of finish was the same in the 2V event.

Syracuse won the 3V and 4V events over Princeton by three seconds and 4.1 seconds, respectively.

All the morning times are available at row2k.com.

Subsequent times were not posted. The plan called for a 1,000-meter piece after the 2K prior to a women's regatta between Princeton and Brown. The men returned to the water after the break to do shorter pieces designated by the coaches after the morning session. 

Swimming at the Boathouse in March?

Breaking the Ice--Literally--in Front of the Boathouse

And they're off....

The Syracuse University women's rowing team kicked off its 2014 spring racing season in South Carolina Friday against Clemson, Eastern Michigan and Boston University Lightweights.

In a regatta that culminated a week of training for the Orange, Clemson's 1V beat SU's 1v by 2.1 seconds, and SU's 2V beat Clemson's by 2.9 seconds.

In the fours, SU's A four beat Clemson's by 4 seconds.

While the Clemson 3V beat SU by 12 seconds, coach Justin Moore noted: "Clemson chose not to race their 2V4, which means their athletes ranked Numbers 21-24 on their squad were in the 3V8, while our athletes 21-24 were in the V4+B. We will close that gap when racing comparable line-ups."

Complete results can be found on row2k.com.

Photo by Holly Johnston '06

Syracuse Crew Winter Training Video

The Syracuse men's and women's rowing teams are in the heart of their eight-week block of indoor training between their January trip to Florida and their March trip to South Carolina.

In this video produced by the Syracuse Department of Athletics Information is an update on the men's team. (If you have trouble viewing the video, here's an alternate link.)

Women's head coach Justin Moore said this year's winter training will be different for his squad: 

“This winter we are making a commitment to increase the volume of our training,” Moore said. “In my first two years, I did not feel that the women were prepared to take on a high-volume training program. Now, with our squad right side up, and having the necessary depth, we are in a place where we have the physical and mental maturity to add volume. To this end, we are having 24 women lactate tested, to ensure that our training paces are 100 percent accurate for this essential period. It is another step in the evolution of our training.”

Darling in Beast Mode on the Erg

In case you've been snowed in, or in the case of the West Coast, out enjoying the fact there has been too little precipitation, let's catch you up on achievements that go beyond merely maintaining your physique on the erg.

Tom Darling '81 set a world indoor rowing record at the February 1 MidAtlantic Erg Sprints, and two weeks later, won his age group at the CRASH-B Sprints by nearly 17 seconds.

You can read Row2K's account of his record-setting piece here.

You can see the CRASH-B results table here.

(Photo courtesy of row2k.com)

The January Orange Oar Is Here

John Nicholson's LetterWinner of Distinction award...Fall Recap....Quotes from the Captains...Florida Training Trip Recap...Profile of Jennifer Sacheck-Ward...Guest column from Tom Darling...and more

Click here to go to the online version.

And don't miss the bonus items from the John Nicholson story:

--John's remarks when he spoke on behalf of the other award recipients--humor, rowing's life lessons and heartfelt gratitude.

--A nice video profile of John.

--One of John's former students, Jason Benetti, Syracuse ’05, Wake Forest Law ’11, baseball play-by-play announcer and media director for the Syracuse Chiefs and basketball announcer on ESPNU, has a quite a story of his own to tell.