The Syracuse crew team’s hibernation is ready to begin. As October appears in the rearview mirror, snow and freezing temperatures loom on the horizon, but not before the last varsity regatta of the fall.

The varsity team finished its season Sunday at the annual Princeton Chase in New Jersey. The Orangemen’s weekly improvements hold much promise for a successful spring.

Senior Andrew Wright has noticed the new successes of the crew program.

‘This is the first year I have seen this continual improvement,’ Wright said. ‘Guys just need to stay dedicated to their training throughout the winter so we can carry through to the spring.’

Two Varsity Eight teams competed in the field of 24, each dividing into two teams of four to compete later in the day. The Varsity A team placed seventh with a time of 14:14.69, while the Varsity B team placed 15th with a time of 14:49.63. The team’s technique has been in sync this fall, but the Orangemen still have some work to do on conditioning.

‘Teams are beating us because of fitness,’ head coach Dave Reischman said. ‘The trick of being at Syracuse is that you have to make use of the water before it freezes over. This leaves a little less time for conditioning.’

The team’s winter training schedule reflects Reischman’s predicament. The Orangemen will be on Onondaga Lake as long as weather permits before making the switch indoors.

SU’s fall training, which centered on smaller boats, prepared it well for the Varsity Four competitions. The Varsity Four A team finished fifth with a time of 15:33.79, less than 30 seconds behind Princeton’s winning team, and Varsity B finished 14th with a time of 16:25.58. The remaining two teams, comprised of the Varsity Eight B boat dissected into two squads, finished 21st and 22nd with times of 16:50.90 and 16:54.65, respectively.

One addition in particular has bolstered Syracuse this fall. Freshman transfer student Dan O’Shaughnessy of Ontario, Canada, has worked hard and boosted morale, Reischman said.

‘Dan shows leadership by example,’ Reischman said. ‘He always has a smile on his face. He shows that you can work really hard and still have a lot of fun.’

In addition to O’Shaughnessy, Reischman’s freshman recruits show potential. Fifteen of the 39 team members are freshmen, and five of them were invited to Junior National Camp this past summer. Freshmen Justin Stangel and Matt Morrow made the Junior National Team, which competed this August in Athens, Greece.

While the team still has to achieve some consistency, it has built on the strong base provided by Reischman’s first year of rebuilding.

‘We are rowing much better than at any point last year,’ Reischman said. ‘We are not setting any goals at this point. Individual guys just need to focus on doing better.’

Published on October 27, 2003 at 12:00 pm