Syracuse varsity 8 finishes 3rd at Eastern Sprints

Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

No. 4 Syracuse men’s rowing traveled to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Sunday to compete in the Eastern Sprints Regatta. All four of Syracuse’s varsity 8 boats finished in the top three of their heats, enabling them to move on. In the grand finals, the Orange finished third, the first time in over 20 years the program reached the podium at the regatta.

To begin the day, Syracuse’s fourth varsity 8 finished third at 5:47.5, just 2.9 seconds behind Harvard and 1.8 behind Dartmouth. The Orange’s second varsity 8 also raced to a third-place finish, crossing the line at 5:47.2. Yale finished first at 5:41.6 and Dartmouth edged out Syracuse again, this time by 1.6 seconds.

The No. 4 ranked varsity 8 unit finished in second place in its heat, defeating No. 14 Penn, No. 11 Wisconsin and No. 19 Holy Cross. Syracuse’s time of 5:35.2 was sixth among the schools competing in the varsity 8 round of the heat stage.

In the final race of the morning, and the heat stage, the Orange’s second varsity 8 unit finished second in the heat with a time of 5:39.8, falling to Harvard at 5:37.5. The finish still meant that all four varsity 8s advanced to the grand finals.

“It was a goal we set in the beginning of the year, to have all four eights in the Grand Finals,” Syracuse head coach Dave Reischman said. “I think it was a big deal for the team and it set the right tempo. Having all our boats do so well was awesome.”

The grand finals kicked off with the varsity 4 earning first place. The unit finished in 6:32.2, about 10 seconds ahead of second-place Penn’s lightweight crew, followed by Harvard’s lightweight unit and varsity 4.

In the 2V8 grand final, Syracuse finished in fourth place, trailing Harvard, Princeton and Brown. The units’ time of 5:38.7 bested fifth place Yale by 0.3 seconds. The 3V8 unit finished sixth, coming in at 5:46.7. Yale took home first place with a time of 5:37.3.

The fourth varsity group also took home sixth place. The unit completed the 2000-meter course in 5:48.98. Harvard finished first, nearly 10 seconds ahead of the Orange at 5:39.0.

In the final race of the day, the varsity 8 finished third with a time of 5:25.5. No. 2 Yale took first with a time of 5:23.7 and No. 6 Princeton finished 0.4 seconds ahead of the Orange at 5:25.1. No. 7 Harvard crossed the line at 5:26.4 for fourth place, followed by No. 5 Dartmouth and No. 10 Brown.

Next, Syracuse races at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championships June 2-4 at Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey. Last year, the team finished fifth, the best mark in Reischman’s 21-year tenure.