Orange Completes Cup Sweep in Boston

Sunday, April 6

Boston, Mass.

8 a.m.

Syracuse University

Kittell Cup (Boston University, Minnesota)

4/6/2014 5:41:00 PM | Women's Rowing

Syracuse women's rowing retained the Kittell Cup with its victory over BU & Minnesota on Sunday.

Complete Results | Saturday's Recap

BOSTON - The No. 18 Syracuse women's rowing team made it a 2-for-2 weekend in Boston on Sunday, beating Boston University and Minnesota to retain the Kittell Cup a day after beating Northeastern and Penn to keep the Orange Challenge Cup.

Head Coach Justin Moore's Orange successfully defended both cups it won last year, making SU 4-of-5 in cup races over the last two seasons. Saturday's Orange Challenge Cup win was the program's first successful cup defense since 2005.

"When we planned our schedule, we wanted to have weekends where we raced more than once so we could go back out the next day and execute," Moore said. "This weekend was fantastic for us as far as learning how to race and being put in different scenarios."

Syracuse won three of its four races on Sunday with all three victories coming in the NCAA-class races – the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four.

In the V8, Minnesota took control of the race early, but the Orange stayed in contact and after trailing most of the race, made a strong move in the last 500 meters to win in a time of 7:12.8, 2.3 seconds ahead of the second-place Gophers (7:15.1) and with substantial open water over the Terriers (7:33.1).

"Our crew just stayed with it, Moore said. "We had a good turn of speed in the final 500 meters and went by them to finish two-thirds of a boat up on them. That turn of speed is something we have developed through months and months of hard work."

SU's V8 consisted of Katherine Isaza (cox), Maggie McCrudden (stroke), Ailish Tinney (7), Miranda Williams (6), Amy Ludovici (5), Georgia Hamilton (4), Rose Aschebrock (3), Emily Carey (2) and Rebecca Soja (bow).

SU's 2V8 won its second race in as many days with an 8.5-second margin over Minnesota's crew and 31.3 seconds better than BU's boat.

The Orange V4 also completed its perfect weekend with a nine-second margin over the Gophers, while SU's "B" crew was third ahead of the Terriers.

"Minnesota had good team depth and we knew we would be challenged," Moore said. "Our lower boats just continued to make a statement about our depth and our overall team speed."

The SU 3V8 finished second to Minnesota while BU was third.

Donated by former SU rower Kristin Bidwell '90, the Kittell Cup is named after former associate director of athletics Janet Kittell for her support of the women's rowing program. The cup goes to the winner of the annual Syracuse-Boston University race. This year's win evens the series 6-6.

The Orange is off next weekend before heading to Clemson, S.C. on April 19-20 for the Clemson Invitational and O'Leary Cup. The event will serve as a great measuring stick for Syracuse as it will be one of 21 teams participating in the event, including many of the top crews in the ACC and across the country.