Syracuse Varsity 8 wins 1st ACC Championship in program history
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Syracuse women’s rowing competed in the ACC Championship on Friday and Saturday morning. The Orange took home a medal in all five grand finals, including a historic gold medal in the Varsity 8.
The racing began Friday morning with the heat races. In the heats, all five Syracuse crews finished in the top two of their event, clinching a spot in the grand final. The V4, V8, and 3V8 all won their races while the 2V8 and 2V4 came in second.
On Saturday morning, the grand finals took place on Lake Wheeler. In its first race of the championship round, the third varsity 8 took second place. The crew finished just 2.8 seconds behind Virginia’s.
The following race was the second varsity 4. In the race, the Orange finished with the bronze medal, falling nine seconds behind Virginia and six seconds behind Duke.
The varsity 4 repeated this same order as Syracuse placed behind Duke and Virginia. The Cavaliers crossed the line at 7:08.9 while the Blue Devils crossed at 7:15.7 and the Orange at 7:22.2.
In the penultimate race of the regatta, the second varsity 8 took to the water and turned in a result similar to the previous crews. The Syracuse 2V8 earned the bronze medal, finishing 12.8 seconds behind Virginia. Virginia narrowly defeated Duke for the gold, winning by just 0.36 seconds.
The varsity 8 finished ACC racing, beating out Virginia by 0.8 seconds for the gold medal. The Orange finished at 6:20.5, giving them the first V8 ACC championship in program history. The crew included coxswain Hannah Murphy, Annika Maxson, Alena Criss, Izabela Krakic, Kamile Kralikaite, Ellie-Kate Hutchinson, India Aikens, Martyna Kazlauskaite and Emmie Frederico.
Syracuse finished in second place with 86 total points. Virginia tallied 95 points, winning four of the five grand finals, for its 13th straight ACC championship.
Syracuse will find out if it qualified for the National Championship on May 16. Only the winner of the conference receives an automatic bid, so it will have to wait to find out its fate. The 2023 NCAA championships will take place May 26-28 in Pennsauken, New Jersey, at Camden County Boathouse.
