Syracuse women’s rowing wins 1st-ever outright ACC title

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Virginia has absolutely dominated Atlantic Coast Conference women’s rowing since it was established in 2000. Coming into the 2024 ACC Championship, the Cavaliers had won 13 straight titles and 22-of-23 all time.

Last year, Virginia defeated Syracuse, but SU’s varsity 8 pulled out a win for the first time in program history. After falling just short in 2023, this time Syracuse secured an outright title for the first time in program history.

Syracuse’s first and second varsity 8s claimed gold medals en route to its first ever ACC title which earned the Orange an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship later this month.

On Friday, each of Syracuse’s boats competed in the preliminary races, with all five of SU’s boats advancing to the final round. The V8, 2V8 and 2V4 all came in first place, while the 3V8 and V4 placed second.

Along with Virginia, Duke and Notre Dame, SU was one of four ACC schools to have every boat move onto the finals. Despite this, Virginia posted the top time in four of five events Friday.

To begin Saturday’s slate of races, the No. 2 seed third varsity 8 claimed a silver medal, finishing behind Virginia by only three seconds. The Orange finished four seconds ahead of Duke and 15 before Notre Dame.

Following this, the No. 3 seed second varsity 4 won a bronze medal with a time of 7:12.6. They were barely edged out by Virginia who finished 1.5 seconds ahead of them along with Duke who was 0.6 ahead.

Then, the No. 3 seed varsity 4 placed fourth, failing to earn a medal. They crossed the line in 7:18.7, 13 seconds after first-place Duke. UVA finished in second, while Notre Dame claimed third by four seconds.

The No. 1 seed second varsity 8, however, got the Orange in the win column, beating out UVA by two seconds for the gold medal in 6:19.4. They also crossed the line eight seconds in front of third place Duke and 13 before Miami.

To cap off the meet, the No. 1 seed varsity 8 won SU’s second race of the day, handily defeating Virginia by five seconds, covering the course in 6:09.8. This was the varsity 8’s second-straight ACC title, after winning it for the first time in program history in 2023.

Overall, the Orange and Cavaliers both finished with 90 points, but Syracuse held the tiebreaker due to the first-place finish by the varsity 8, granting it the ACC title. Duke finished third with 78 points, while Notre Dame placed fourth with 68.

Syracuse will get two weeks to prepare for the NCAA Championship after receiving an automatic bid. They will compete from May 31 to June 2 on Harsha Lake in Cincinnati, Ohio to try and win the program’s first ever national title.