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A strong headwind dominated the red clay shores of Lake Lanier Olympic Park in Gainesville, Georgia on May 26, 2001. An excited Alicea Strodel and a nervous Helen Tanger — sitting in the sixth and third seats, respectively — were among the rowers in Syracuse’s varsity 8 huddle before the grand final of the NCAA Championships. They were preparing for the 2000-meter championship race without head coach Kris Sanford.

The night prior, Sanford was hospitalized with a medical emergency. Instead, Bill Sanford, a longtime SU men’s rowing head coach and Sanford’s father, took charge of the traditional pre-race huddle and pep talk before the Orange launched. It was the first time an SU varsity 8 qualified for the grand final, and the Orange were looking for their first NCAA title in program history. The 2001 championships marked the school’s third varsity 8 at-large bid and second consecutive NCAA appearance, with the varsity 8 placing ninth.

Without their coach, the Orange launched with five other powerhouses on their side. SU tried to combat the resistant headwind while keeping pace with the rest of the pack, but they couldn’t. Syracuse trailed all five boats in the race for nearly the entire race. They crossed the finish line last (7:19:56), but the sixth-place finish solidified this varsity 8 as the best in SU’s program history.

The first varsity 8 boat had a perfect 8-0 regular season record, defeating 21 teams and winning the Big East Championship. The varsity 8 placed third at Eastern Sprints and sixth in the NCAA Championships, both best finishes in Syracuse history. Since then, SU has had three team NCAA appearances (2002, 2016, 2017), and one varsity 8 at-large bid in 2005. The varsity 8s in those seasons placed no higher than 11th.

Twenty years later, former SU rower Heather VanZandt still doesn’t believe that she was a part of the best varsity 8 boat in program history. “The team spirit from the whole team helped carry you out on the water,” she said.

Strodel, now the women’s rowing head coach at the University of Minnesota, said no one would’ve imagined an undefeated season due to the strength of Syracuse’s schedule. But a victory over Yale on April 7, 2001 at Cayuga Inlet in Ithaca changed that. Competing against a tough Bulldogs boat and Cornell, the Orange talked strategy before the race. The course had a turn in it, which created a staggered start.

Despite the Bulldogs’ coxswain vehemently shouting “We are Yale! We are Yale!” throughout the race, the Orange came out of the turn ahead and defeated Yale by six seconds and Cornell by 22.

“I remember us talking that, if we could come out of that turn and be ahead, we were in a great spot,” Strodel said.

The Orange were no strangers to large margins of victory. They defeated Penn by 8.6 seconds and Northeastern by 9.6 at the Orange Challenge Cup in Philadelphia. Then, they beat University of Central Florida by 22.15 seconds, Miami by 18.14 and Navy by 22.6 at Indian Creek in Miami. They also took regular season wins over UMass by 14.1 seconds and Villanova by 35.9.

The week prior to the Yale victory, the Orange defeated Boston University by a slim 1.8 seconds. Two weeks after Yale, in a race against Harvard-Radcliffe, SU trailed by a boat length in the first 1500 meters. But in the final 500 meters, the Orange came from behind to defeat Harvard-Radcliffe for the first time in program history while also dominating Dartmouth by 25.6 seconds.

The varsity 8 won the grand final at the Big East Challenge at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Massachusetts. They beat second-place Rutgers by nearly six seconds, catapulting SU into first place in the team standings.

“Winning the Big East was not a big deal for us,” former SU rower Jillian Carlson said. “It was sort of an expectation.”

In preseason practices, the varsity 8 would sometimes row in pairs rather than with all eight together. This strategy allowed coaches to find errors in rowers’ techniques, as it’s easier to hide mistakes when rowing in a full varsity 8, said Rachael Posey, SU’s five seat in 2001. The pairs switched every practice to see who was the fastest. But in the end, the same nine — eight rowers and the coxswain — always won seats in the first varsity 8.

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Winter snow rows, treadmill runs, erg workouts, weightlifting sessions and climbs up the Carrier Dome steps all contributed to the first varsity 8 boat’s intense workouts. They were constantly competing against SU’s second varsity 8, who eyed spots in the top boat. Workouts and practices doubled or even tripled some days. There wasn’t one practice where they weren’t motivated, Tanger said.

“All year long, I just remember that there was this expectation that you would do an extra workout every day,” Carlson said. “We were dedicated to our fitness and getting better.”

During a winter training session, one of the coaches played a card game with the team, Carlson recalled. If the coach picked a certain card, the team could forego practice that day. The winning card was drawn, but no one on the team took advantage of it. Instead, they all stayed and completed an erg workout.

“That training is just grueling,” former SU rower Meredith Kyle said. “I’ve never done something so difficult in my life. I literally could eat whatever I wanted to, and I was in the best shape I’ve ever been in.”

After the 2001 finish, Tanger and former SU rower Froukje Wegman rowed in the same boat for the Netherlands national team and earned a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Tanger also won silver in the 2008 Beijing Games. Without that season, without her teammates, without Sanford, Tanger doesn’t think she would have had post-collegiate success.

Since 2001, Syracuse has been to the NCAA Championships only five times and has never finished higher than 11th place.

“For that to be unmatched since, just shines a light on what a special group it was,” Strodel said.

Published on April 19, 2021 at 9:08 pm

Contact Cole: colebambini@gmail.com | @ColeBambini