By Giovanni Gray, news correspondent

After the 2015 winter, crew teams might need to consider putting ice picks on the boats. The rivers are finally melted, allowing the Northeastern women’s rowing team to travel to New York last weekend to take on the Syracuse University and University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) crews.

The Huskies topped the UPenn Quakers in the first varsity eight competition, and finished second to the Syracuse Orange in both the second and third varsity eight races. The Huskies first boat managed to beat the Quakers by 13 seconds, while the second and third boats fell to the Orange by seven and 17 seconds, respectively.

In the varsity four competition, the first Husky boat came in third place behind Syracuse and UPenn, and the second varsity boat finished second behind the Orange. The weekend didn’t come without adversity, as the varsity eight race, originally scheduled for Friday, was rescheduled for Saturday morning due to darkness and debris on the river. Syracuse’s crew didn’t race, which resulted in the Huskies going head-to-head with the Quakers.

“We were very excited to just get the race underway,” junior Katie O’Connell, the eighth seat in the first varsity boat, said. “Even though we beat Penn, we wanted to push closer to Syracuse.”

The Orange are ranked No. 17 nationally, while the Huskies are currently just 25 votes out of a top-20 ranking.

“As a team, we did well working with the weather conditions, as there were originally supposed to be more races,” O’Connell said.

Saturday afternoon races were also cancelled due to wind and water conditions.

“We did well dealing with what came to us, and we did well with dealing with the water and staying on our toes,” she said.

The first varsity eight boat posted a time of 6:12.7, while the second and third varsity eights posted times of 6:32.5 and 6:59.8, respectively. The first varsity four crew posted a time of 7:40.0, while the second varsity four boat finished the race in 7:26.9.

This weekend, the Huskies travel to Fort Lee, N.J.for the Woodbury Cup to take on the crews of Columbia and Duke Universities. O’Connell noted that the squad has been focused on improving technique as well as getting the rowers in each boat to be more in sync.

“This year the team has worked hard, and, as a whole, we’ve gotten a lot deeper,” she said.

Photo by Justin Casterline, courtesy Northeastern Athletics