Syracuse women’s rowing: looking ahead to the NCAA Championship

Championship season continues for the Syracuse Orange women’s rowing squad.

Following a second-place finish at the ACC Championships last weekend, the Orange received one of the 11 at-large selections for the NCAA Division-I rowing championship in Pensauken, New Jersey. SU came in right behind top-seeded UVA in the conference championship, who earned an auto-bid.

Syracuse enters its final competition as the No. 10 overall seed in this week’s Pocock/CRCA Row Coaches Association Poll. Starting the season in the same position, the Orange have bounced back and forth from eighth to 10th.

The competition begins next Friday and features 22 teams racing in three different events: varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four. Syracuse’s top unit, its varsity eight crew, earned the No. 7 seed for its race. The second varsity eight enters as the No. 14 seed, while the varsity four is the No. 13 seed.

It’s the 10th NCAA Tournament appearance for the Orange and the sixth in the last seven years. Last season, SU entered as the No. 13 overall seed and finished 17th in varsity eight, 16th in second varsity eight and 14th in varsity four. The best the program has ever finished was 10th in 2021.

After graduating six athletes after last year, Syracuse only had four of nine varsity eight crew members return. Coxswain Hannah Murphy leads the unit for the second season along with Annika Maxson, Alena Criss, Izabela Krakic, Kamile Kralikaite, Ellie-Kate Hutchinson, India Aikens, Martyna Kazlauskaite and Emmie Frederico. The squad won ACC Crew of the Year, and Hutchinson earned Newcomer of the Year.

Pending the results of its heat races, Syracuse’s three crews could advance to the semifinal competitions on Saturday the 27th and finals on Sunday the 28th. Whichever team accumulates the most points across all contests will be deemed the national champion.