Over the weekend, the men’s and women’s rowing teams closed out the fall portion of their season in commanding fashion –– winning five-of-seven races despite a persistent rain and strong headwinds that plagued Syracuse’s Onondaga Lake.

“The conditions [were] absolutely miserable, but that’s one of the things ... where you can complain about it, and if you complain about it you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage,” said heavyweight rowing head coach Todd Kennett. “Everybody’s going to have to race in it; it’s an outdoor sport, suck it up and deal with it, and go out to win a race. Because if you don’t, you’re not going to win. You have to take what you want to get, and if you don’t push like that, you won’t get it.”

In the first heat of the men’s varsity-4 race, Cornell’s A, B and C boats went Nos. 2, 3 and 4, respectively, and all finished within six seconds of each other. Syracuse placed first with a time of 17:51.8

“Syracuse’s first four beat us all by a [considerable margin], which is disappointing, but after them Cornell’s top three fours ... all went pretty fast relative to each other, so that shows the team has a lot of depth,” said senior heavyweight Dan Hutchison, who was part of the varsity-4 C crew.

Senior captain Chris Frendl acknowledged that the lineup switch affected how well the boats rowed together. Typically, the team rows in crews of eight, but for Saturday’s Syracuse Invitational, the Red varsity raced in groups of four, plus a coxswain.

“We didn’t really spend too much time in coxed fours ... we’ve done a lot of work in the eights,” said Frendl, who competed in the varsity-4 A boat. “We could have done better. Technically, we didn’t row the most efficient race, but overall we are building to a good spring.”

On the women’s side, the Red’s A boat won the varsity-4 race with a time of 21:08.1, followed by the B boat in fourth place.

In the men’s freshman-8 competition, Cornell came away with four of the top five spots, including a first-place finish by the Red’s A boat (17:37.3). Meanwhile, the Cornell B, lightweight B and lightweight A crews went Nos. 3, 4 and 5, respectively.

The women swept the first two places in the novice-8 race, with the A boat finishing first at 20:34.5, followed by the B crew, which crossed the line less than one second later.

In the second heat of the men’s varsity-4, Cornell took the top four places, with the lightweight D boat winning the race in 19:25.8. The Red placed six boats in the top seven.

“We’re a pretty young team, so my goal coming here was to hopefully have one four go really fast, and then have a few other fours be competitive with each other. In terms of the overall competition, we were great,” Kennett said. “There were a couple boats that really surprised me, which shows me we have good depth.”

Meanwhile, the Cornell D boat finished third in the second heat of the women’s varsity-4.

Cornell’s A boat earned a first-place finish in the second heat of the men’s freshman-8 with a time of 19:30.7. The lightweight A and heavyweight B crews rounded out the top three spots.

“We have good speed now –– a lot to work with –– but we need to make sure that we get the guys to go to the next level,” Kennett said. “We need to make sure that we learn to row together in one style and form a little bit better than we are, so that ... if we never end up with guys that are super strong or super incredible rowers, that together the eight guys will be special because they’re doing one exact thing.”

Hutchison echoed his coach’s sentiments: “We have at least 12 guys who can move boats pretty well; we have a lot of fitness, and it’s just we really need to find the right combination and train a little bit harder to really get that top-end speed to match what Syracuse produced in their top four.”

Cornell rowing now enters a five-month respite from competition, which speaks to the significance of Saturday’s fall season-concluding invitational.

“[This race] is a chance for me to assess us at the last second before we go into our 49 days and our winter training program, and really see what things I can do to tweak and help make the guys go the fastest that they can be,” Kennett said.

“It’s a good marker pretty early on to see how our training is going and what we need to change and how much quicker we need to get,” Frendl said. “It was a valuable race today to see that ... we made some pretty good strides.”