The members of the Boston University men’s crew team traditionally bet shirts with their opponents, meaning that the winners literally get the shirts off the backs of the losers.
But on Saturday, the varsity eight lost more than their shirts when they lost to Syracuse University: they lost the inaugural cup race named after the founder of BU crew, Jim Conlan. The varsity men stood on the dock of DeWolfe Boathouse and watched as coach Rodney Pratt presented the Conlan Cup to the Orangemen.
Syracuse won the cup by rowing the 2,000-meter course in 6:08.85, while BU crossed the line in 6:16.26.
“It didn’t really turn out like we wanted it to,” said senior Dan Greenberg. “But we’re still really confident, and we have a firm grasp of what we need to work on.”
“Of course we never feel good about losing,” Pratt said. “The varsity rowed well, though. Syracuse was just stronger than us on that day.”
The varsity lineup included Greenberg, Chris Perry, Mitch Johnson, Andre Reid, Andrew Tropp, Sean Casavechia, Trudo Letschert, John Grogan and Andrew Henry.
“I think it’s our first race, so we haven’t really been next to other crews, and we’ve only been racing against ourselves,” Perry said. “We have a positive outlook, and we’ll keep getting faster.”
The second varsity also had trouble, finishing behind Syracuse’s second and third varsity eights. The Orangemen claimed victory with 6:11.36 and 6:17.51 finishes, while BU came close to second place with its 6:18.65.
“It was a pretty good race, considering everything,” said assistant coach Marco Bovo. “We went out with this lineup one time before the race. We didn’t have many hours spent together, so that’s our handicap.”
The second varsity was coxed by Ben Boyd and rowed by Matt Dukowski, Fran Racioppi, Kevin Valent, Jarrod Campbell, Luke Huisenga, Sean Corcoran, Dan Ford and Hideki Kaku.
The first freshman eight placed second in its race to river powerhouse Harvard University, a competitor only in this race. Harvard’s first freshman crew posted a 6:16.03, followed by BU at 6:25.44, Syracuse at 6:27.33, and the Crimson’s second freshman in 6:28.04.
“The freshmen did a nice job,” Pratt said. “Harvard has a well-recruited boat, while we have several guys who have never rowed a race before.”
The first freshman lineup was Priya George, Jordan Thurlow, Jaxon Rudduck, James Allgood, Tom Roseberry, John Leinicke, Mike Siedband, Mark Baeder and G.W. Jones.
BU’s second freshman four raced the course in 7:34.19, which wasn’t fast enough to beat the Syracuse four’s time of 7:31.02.
The four was coxed by Liana Shelby and rowed by Mike Bernheisel, Brett Demshar, Sean Dixon and Tom Shochat.
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