By Peter Lorenz
The women’s rowing team took another step in the right direction by defeating Pennsylvania and Syracuse to win the Orange Cup for the third straight year Saturday.
The Huskies beat the Pennsylvania Quakers with a time of 6:52.2. Penn finished second with a time of 6:58.8 followed by Syracuse.
Northeastern went off the line with another solid start and gained a quick advantage on Penn.
In the first 500 meters, NU lost some ground to the feisty Penn crew. Coming into the halfway point of the race, NU was up by about a three-seat margin on Penn, with Syracuse behind both crews by a boat-length. Entering the middle 1,000 meters of the race, the Huskies regained their advantage on Penn. Northeastern implemented their sprint and started to pull away in the final 500 meters.
Time ran out for Penn as Northeastern crossed the line ahead of the Quakers with a three-seat advantage and a boat-length on Syracuse.
“I give Penn credit,” said Varsity head coach Joe Wilhelm. “They threw everything they had at us. Every time we would try and make a move they would counter it, but I feel that the Varsity 8 executed the race plan perfectly.”
The Novice 8, while still young, proved their resilience this weekend by rowing to a second place finish. NU finished 14.4 seconds behind the winner Penn, and placed .8 seconds ahead of Syracuse.
“I was really happy with this week’s race,” said Novice coach Miranda Paris. “We lost to BC last week, and BC lost to Syracuse so that means we made a significant amount of time in one week. It would have been great to nip Penn, but I think they raced to their potential. The boat is just beginning to scratch the surface.”
Paris went on to say “next weekend will be a great test for us. We have to race twice over the course of the weekend so it will be a good simulation of what sprints will be like. We need to focus on performing.”
The Second Varsity 8 finished second behind Penn with a time of 7:13.4, while the Varsity 4 crossed the line third behind Syracuse and Penn respectively with a time of 8:00.6.
The upcoming week is going to be tough for the Huskies with the end of classes and finals approaching.
“Maintaining our focus while we have all of these outside distractions is going to be important. We have to make the switch from student to being an athlete when we get to the boathouse,” Saville said.
Next weekend will be a test for the Huskies with many of the nation’s top crews coming to town for a two day, three race weekend.
NU gets the weekend underway with a 9:30 a.m. race against Notre Dame Saturday and then again against Syracuse and Gonzaga in the afternoon. Sunday the Huskies will take to the water to race Texas at 9 a.m.
“What’s exciting about this boat is that we have a very solid third 500 [meters],” said captain and coxswain of the Varsity 8 Colleen Saville. “Now we just have to use that as a catalyst for our final 500 [meters].”
