This past weekend, both the men’s and women’s rowing teams headed to Syracuse for the Syracuse Invitational, where they raced against the stiff competition of Uni­versity at Buffalo, Marist College, Syra­cuse University, Cornell University and the University of Rochester. The Colgate women’s varsity team entered both an A and B boat, which finished tenth and thir­teenth respectively. The Colgate men’s team finished ninth out of 17 in its varsity four.

Though the women’s team was up against schools with larger programs than Colgate, the Raiders held their own and placed better than they had in the past.

“The team owes this to the increased fitness that [they] have been improv­ing by doing 90-minute steady states on the erg every Tuesday morning,” senior captain Elspeth Monigle said.

The Colgate women’s A boat had a very strong finish and was able to move away from Rochester’s A boat and Buf­falo’s B boat. The B boat also had a great race, pulling together to walk over Marist. Along with the varsity eights, the Colgate women also entered a novice boat. It rowed well and kicked up the intensity for the finish, which allowed the Raiders to beat three other novice boats. This was the women’s last race of the fall season; the spring season will start in March.

The men’s team went up against na­tionally-ranked Syracuse and Cornell, who finished sixth and third in the country last year.

“The race provided a good opportunity to test our speed against some of the fast­est teams in the country,” senior James Clinton said.

With a time of 17:26.7, the men’s four was one minute behind the first-place Syracuse boat and 20 seconds behind the Cornell B boat.

While the women will not return to competition until March, the men’s team is looking forward to testing it­self again at the Frostbite Regatta in Philadelphia, PA this upcoming week­end, another chance to face off against nationally-ranked opponents.