The Duke rowing team lost all of its races against national powers Michigan and Ohio State Saturday, but the meet proved to be a moral victory.
Coming off close races against UVa, another national power, last week, the Blue Devils made races against the Wolverines and the Buckeyes even closer.
"We were really happy with the result," Duke junior Amelia Booth said. "We were really excited to be as close as we were. I think we surprised them."
The day started out slow for Duke, with the first varsity eight falling a complete boat-length behind Michigan.
The Blue Devils then took charge, and closed the gap to four seats. Duke continued to make strides before eventually faltering to the Wolverines 7:10.3 -7:12.9.
"That [come-back] motivated us for the rest of the day," Booth said.
Michigan's second varsity eight, the 2001 national champions, extended its winning streak to 12 despite catching a crab--when the oar gets caught in the force of the water and comes out of the rower's hands. Michigan quickly recovered from its fault, and created an open-water lead before winning 7:07.3- 7:35.4.
Duke then lost to Michigan's first varsity four 8:01.8- 8:13.9 in atrocious weather.
"The weather was pretty ugly," Booth said. "We handled it as best we could. It definitely affected the racing."
Later in the day, Duke lost to Ohio State's first varsity eight 7:39.1- 7:47.3, to its second varsity eight 7:31.6- 8:08.9, and to its first varsity four 8:40.8- 8:42.1.
All times showed improvement from last week's showing in Virginia.
"This is another step up," Booth said. "We had a better margin against team's that are traditionally even faster than UVa is."
The Blue Devils will try to keep improving next week at the San Diego Crew Classic in San Diego, Calif., April 6.
"We've been doing a lot of work this week to get faster, and I didn't expect it to pay off as quickly as it did," Booth said.
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