The Syracuse team went into Boston this weekend with two unique motivational techniques: the phrase ’10 strokes for Tupac’ and not expecting to win. It may seem foreign to some, but for freshmen Johanna Gerig and Mandy DeHaven, it helped propel them to victory.

Gerig and DeHaven went undefeated in three races this weekend as the women’s rowing crew competed at the Charles River Classic in Boston. The duo was part of the victorious novice four squad against Southern California, Dartmouth and Radcliffe, and the novice eight boat that bested Northeastern on Saturday and beat Boston University and Texas on Sunday.

The varsity four also notched two victories during the weekend, including a win over Northeastern, who had beaten the Orange in that race the week before. The varsity eight also claimed the Kittell Cup by defeating Boston University on Sunday.

Gerig and DeHaven, both walk-ons, trained together in the offseason. Saturday, in the opening match against USC, Radcliffe and Dartmouth marked the first time they were able to row in the same boat.

‘They both provide sparks,’ SU head coach Kris Sanford said. ‘They are both walk-ons who just started this year and didn’t know anything about rowing before. Some kids can just get into a boat and make it go, and they have certainly proven they can do that from their results.’

In the first race, Gerig and DeHaven’s novice four boat was the only Syracuse boat to emerge victorious in the four-way race – but it did not come easy.

‘We were behind the first 1,000 (meters),’ Gerig said. ‘We were told there was a bridge that marked the first 1,000 from the second 1,000, and our coach told us if we could hold it together under that bridge, we would have the best chance of finishing well. And then it was just like she said, Dartmouth fell apart under the bridge.’

During the race, DeHaven said that the coxswain called out ’10 strokes for Tupac!’ and added a little bit of fun to the physical pain the rowers were enduring.

‘Your sitting there in pain, you don’t feel like you can go any farther, you’re hurt, and mentally and physically exhausted,’ DeHaven said. ‘And then you start thinking about 10 strokes for this dead rapper, it makes you laugh and adds an element of fun to the race.’

Gerig and DeHaven finished out Saturday in the novice eight boat against Northeastern. Despite the previous race’s success and beating the Huskies in the novice eight race last weekend, DeHaven said the team went in not expecting to win because that’s when a team starts to lose it.

The strategy worked as the Orange beat the Huskies by 19.2 seconds.

‘Even when we started taking a huge lead, we never gave up, we pulled hard to the finish,’ DeHaven said. ‘We wanted to beat them as bas as we could.’

Heading into Sunday morning with a perfect record, though, Gerig said she still felt nervous, and the fact that Texas had a fast squad did not help. DeHaven said for the second time in two races, nobody thought they had a chance, but she felt Texas had the same thoughts, which led to their downfall. The Orange beat the Longhorns by three seconds and BU by 21.3.

‘I think that’s what really gave us our chance to win,’ DeHaven said. ‘They were way ahead of us for the first half of the race, but we never let ourselves be defeated, and we went out and pulled and started gaining on them the last half.’

Sanford liked what she saw out of that crew, saying it has been steadily improving all year and the goal is to see if it win can Big East and possibly gets into the finals of the Eastern Sprints.

For the two walk-on freshmen, though, a weekend of victory, despite not expecting it, strokes for Tupac and going undefeated was enough to keep them happy.

‘It’s exciting having success,’ Gerig said. ‘These are my first races winning personally, and it makes me more excited to see what is going to happen next.’

Published on April 15, 2007 at 12:00 pm