Kate Ryan ’22 had a pact with fellow crew member Eliza Yager ’22 that set the tone for each rowing season. “Eliza and I promise to pull 10 percent harder for each other, even if we’re not in the same boat,” says the six-foot senior. “The idea of pulling for your teammates rather than yourself is popular with the entire crew.” 

Given the Orange’s performances at the 2021 ACC and NCAA women’s rowing championships, where they respectively finished third and a program-best 10th, the pact has proven successful. Prior to last spring, the women’s rowing team had not placed higher than 12th at the famed NCAA regatta. 

Ryan was integral to the success of the 44-year-old program. A veteran of the Second Varsity Eight (2V8) boat, Ryan sat behind Yager at the stern, emulating and transmitting her every move to the rest of the crew. Ryan considered Yager more than a pair partner. The latter also is 2V8’s “stroke” rower, the person responsible for setting the stroke rate and intensity. Together, the duo contributed to what is known as “swing” in rowing parlance—the graceful, synchronous alignment of bodies and blades. “Kate and Eliza implicitly trust one another,” says Head Coach Luke McGee. “This breeds confidence and puts everyone else at ease.” 

Ryan became interested in plant ecology during a first-year biology course. While everyone else was studying “anatomy and how muscles worked,” she turned her attention to plants. 

Ryan has since had several lightbulb moments. One of them was an Honors course called The Role of Science in Environmental Governance, culminating in a trip to Geneva, Switzerland. It was there that Ryan participated in the third meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury. 

Then a second-year student, Ryan says the trip taught her volumes about the mercury cycle—the process by which mercury converts from one form to another. Human activities like coal burning and ore mining, she explains, can contaminate water sources with inorganic mercury. “When converted to methylmercury, this form of mercury can be highly toxic and absorbed in the bodies of fish. Ironically, countries that emit the most mercury, like China and Mexico, have relatively small amounts of fish in their diets,” says Ryan. 

Ryan was a regular at nearby Onondaga Lake, where she trains as a rower and scientist. The 4.6-mile-long lake, once the country’s most polluted, is in the throes of an aggressive mercury clean-up effort. 

Fascinated by the Clean Water Act, Ryan studied policy solutions that inform Onondaga Lake’s site investigations and remediation activities. She says that even though federal attention to mercury clean-up has “slowed and transitioned” to water-quality monitoring programs, she admires the current local determination to restoring the lake’s eco- logical health and recreational value. 

 Thus, while gliding across Onondaga Lake—now its cleanest in nearly a century—Ryan often turned inward. She sometimes trans- ports herself to a memorable race in 2019, when she and Yager helped 20th-ranked Syracuse defeat No. 7 Princeton in a “David vs. Goliath” matchup for the ages. “I think about that race a lot, whenever I doubt myself or need the confidence to compete against someone who is supposedly faster or better,” Ryan concludes. “With trust and tenacity, I can achieve the unexpected.” 

By Rob Enslin