The Duke women’s rowing team and hundreds of other competitors met in Boston this weekend for The Head of the Charles, the world’s largest regatta.
The Blue Devils’ voyage down the Charles River was successful as they placed 12th out of 41 boats in the women’s championship eight division. Of the 11 teams to cross the finish before them, seven were collegiate squads and the other four were national rowing programs.
Duke, finishing in a time of 12:44.383, beat out Texas, Stanford and Clemson—three of the teams the Blue Devils had focused on beating, senior Christine Lauro said.
“It was a great place to start the season,” Lauro said. “This finish sets our standards high and gives us a lot of incentive as we train through the winter for the spring season.”
The distractions caused by the hype surrounding a race of this magnitude tested the team’s concentration, especially with a live rock band blasting music and cheering fans lining the course.
“It’s easy to get distracted,” sophomore Emma Darling said. “But we focused on the people in front of us in the boat and less on the thousands of people on the sides.”
The Blue Devils also had to change their strategy because windy conditions caused officials to shorten the race by 1,500 meters for the first time in the event’s 40-year history. Although Duke’s plan was to go out under control and conserve energy for the end, the shorter course forced the team to increase its stroke rate early. A new boat and superior steering from coxswain Katie Tobin relieved some of the pressure on the rest of the team.
“We had a really good course because we could steer around corners well,” Darling said.
The women’s youth eight also had a standout race Sunday, finishing seventh in a field of 51 boats. The finish matched the best performance by a Duke team in the event and earned the youth team an automatic bid to next year’s competition.
“It was a great race, we really clicked as a unit and Caroline [Smith] did a good job of steering the course,” freshman coach Emily Egge said.
The Head of the Charles was the first race for the new freshman lineup, and although the team had a strong showing, it knows it has to lower its times.
“We went into the race feeling okay,” Smith said. “Now we’re a lot more confident as a team, but there’s lots of room for improvement.”
With the progress made at the Head of the Charles, the team now turns its attention to the Head of the Chattahoochee which takes place Nov. 6 and 7 in Gainesville, Ga.
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