Men's heavyweight head coach Topher Bordeau said the team was frustrated to lose such a closely matched contest.
"It's disappointing to lose," Bordeau said. "Syracuse is a very good team, [but] I think we still had a chance at beating them going in."
Dartmouth's first varsity boat finished just 2.8 seconds behind the Orange in the tightest race of the day, with the two teams finishing in 5:40.5 and 5:37.7, respectively.
The times differed from last season, when Dartmouth ended the race in 5:31.3 and beat the Orange by 3.2 seconds. With that win, the Big Green claimed the Packard Cup for the first time in five years.
The Orange also prevailed in the matchup's other three contests: the second varsity eight, the varsity four and the novice eight races.
Syracuse finished in 5:47.1 in the second varsity eight, with Dartmouth following in 5:54.0. Syracuse won the varsity four by a large margin, crossing in 6:29.1, while the Big Green trailed behind in 6:51.2. Dartmouth held its own in the novice eight, however, finishing in 6:02.2 and coming in just behind the Orange, which crossed in 5:58.04.
Captain Alex Pujol '11 said the team performed well over the weekend, noting that the race served as an important learning experience for the Big Green.
"This weekend, we switched up the lineup a bit, so I think we did really well," Pujol said. "I'm happy we gave them a run for their money Syracuse is a really good team."
Bordeau added that the race gave Dartmouth an opportunity to reassess its strengths and weaknesses.
"Results aside, it was productive at identifying a couple things in each crew that we can improve upon to get better," Bordeau said. "I think all the crews raced hard and raced pretty well. I'm more interested in looking at what we can do today, tomorrow and the next day to be better prepared to race."
Pujol said one of the team's general weaknesses this season has been a tendency for crews to allow rival boats to take the lead halfway through races.
"This year, we've been losing our races in the middle section of the race, but I think in order to be successful, we're going to have to work on our middle thousand," he said.
Although the team is unlikely to significantly improve this late in its season, it will "make minor tweaks" in hopes of lowering its times before the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship in early June, Pujol said.
"We're hoping to gain a little bit of speed that way," he said.
Bordeau said the team must be near perfect if it is to compete and place at IRAs, which will take place in Camden, N.J., and host the best teams from the Eastern Sprints and "very, very strong crews" from the West Coast, such as Stanford University.
"We're going to have to be our absolute best to have a chance at competing," Bordeau said. "I expect that the competition will be severe."
