Cornell University Athletics

On Halloween, the first costumes the Big Red rowing teams put on were their unisuits to race at the Syracuse Invitational against various competitive schools, including Syracuse, Marist, and University of Buffalo. This was our last race of the fall season before we head indoors to carry out our winter training in order to prepare ourselves for the spring season. This was basically our final chance on the water before winter to prove how fast we are and how much we need to improve as a team to make sure we are a force to be reckoned with in the spring.

Our day began relatively early with a weather report of rain and wind and we weren’t disappointed—there was a raging head wind when we arrived at Syracuse with various spurts of rain. Luckily coach Gehman has trained us in practice on how to deal with these conditions and makes it a point to put us into some less than desired water conditions for a least a few strokes every practice, so we are ready to race in anything. While the novice team raced in two eights, the varsity teams raced in six fours—an even greater challenge against the wind. However, one way to look at the situation was that every other boat racing that day was put in the same conditions as us, so it was up to our individual boats on how we handled the weather.

And for the majority of our boats, the way we handled it was very well. In our first flight of fours, the women’s varsity A boat came in first, beating second place Syracuse by 14 seconds. The B boat came in fourth, followed by the C boat in seventh. Our novices dominated, taking first and second in their event. In the second flight of women’s varsity fours, the D boat made a solid showing in third place, with the E and F boats following in eighth and ninth, respectively.

Even though the weather was not in our favor, it presented a good opportunity for our team to see how we could handle ourselves in unfavorable situations. There are rarely races in the spring where the sun is shining and the wind is perfect, so it is good to be prepared for that now. All in all, we pushed ourselves and ended with good results in Syracuse. Now, we have all winter to improve our speed and fitness in order to come out on top in the spring. We know what we need to do, and our team is ready to work hard to accomplish our goals!