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Syracuse women’s rowing will open its spring 2023 season on March 18 when it faces Virgina in a scrimmage in Charlottesville. The preseason regatta will be a preview of the Orange’s competition throughout the season.

In 2022, Virginia won its 12th consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference championship, solidifying itself as the standard for women’s rowing in the ACC. The Orange finished in second place at the conference championship behind the Cavaliers. Later, SU finished 17th at the NCAA Championships while Virginia finished in ninth place.

Syracuse entered as the higher seed in the ACC heading into the conference championship. Before racing in Lake Hartwell, South Carolina, Syracuse was the No. 1 seed in the varsity 8, second varsity 8, and second varsity 4, marking its first top seed ever for the ACC championship. It also sat at No. 11 in the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Poll.

At the regatta, Syracuse’s varsity 8 and second varsity 8 both finished less than two seconds behind Virginia’s boats. The varsity 4 finished in third and the third varsity 8 finished in fourth. Overall, the Orange finished second overall with 83 points, while the Cavaliers won with 98.

“The team is hungry for more,” head coach Luke McGee said in a release after the regattas. “Last year, if you talked to us and we had finished second, we would have been elated. This year we took second and we are a little disappointed because we have that belief in ourselves that we can go in and win it.”

Despite not winning the conference championship, the Orange secured an at-large bid for the NCAA championships, where they ranked No. 13 in the country prior to the event. Syracuse was one of three ACC programs to qualify, finishing 17th overall. A year prior, the team finished in 10th place — the best in program history.

The Orange graduated six seniors following 2022, but returns 33 rowers. Syracuse gets back Aphrodite Gioulekas and Kami Kralikaite, who received All-ACC first team honors. Coxswain Hanna Murphy comes back after earning second team honors. The 2023 team will be captained by Madison D’Ambra, Emmie Frederico and Luisa Gathman.

“Coaching evolves each year,” said McGee, who enters his fifth season at Syracuse. “Every year the challenge is different, the path is different”.

Throughout the fall offseason, the Orange have been hard at work, competing in three regattas.

In late October, Syracuse continued its annual tradition of competing at the Head of Charles regatta, entering two varsity 8 boats into the competition. The A boat finished eighth overall while the B boat finished 20th.

Jacques Megnizin | Design Editor

The next weekend, the Orange dominated the competition at the Head of the Fish regatta. Syracuse’s varsity 8 won its race while all three Syracuse varsity 4s also picked up victories. To finish up the fall offseason, Syracuse participated in the Princeton Chase, where the Orange’s entire roster competed in at least one competition.

A week after the Orange’s scrimmage against Virginia, Syracuse will open regular-season competition, rowing in a regatta at Cooper River against Harvard, Rutgers and Iowa.

Among other meets on the schedule, Syracuse will compete at the Doc Hosea Invitational on April 1, facing Cornell and Yale. At last year’s Doc Hosea Invitational, both Syracuse boats advanced to the grand final, which was later canceled because of poor weather conditions.

Two weeks later, Syracuse heads to North Carolina for the Lake Wheeler Invitational, followed by the Eastern Sprints on April 30 in Massachusetts to close the regular season. Lake Wheeler will also be the site for the ACC championships on May 12 and 13.

Should it qualify for the NCAA championships, Syracuse will return to Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey on the final weekend of May. The Orange have qualified every year except 2019 under McGee.

“I’m excited about this team,” McGee said. “The student-athletes are driving the team this year and that’s when a team is at its best. They are focused on the performance and they know from good performance, results will follow.”

Published on March 7, 2023 at 11:47 pm

Contact Aiden at: amstepan@syr.edu | @AidenStepansky