A quick launch can make a huge difference.
Saturday afternoon the rowing team established itself as the squad to beat at the Head of the Chattahoochee in Atlanta, Ga., and it watched from its lead position as other teams struggled to keep pace Sunday. By the end of the weekend, Duke had produced 12 top-five finishes.
“Everyone was really excited after Saturday,” sophomore Emma Darling said. “People had a lot of fun racing. Going into Sunday everyone was in pretty good spirits.”
Duke began its blistering pace in the second event of the meet, when the Blue Devils’ team of Darling, Sarah Shapiro, Tonia Boock, Amber Straight and Krista Harryman cruised to victory in the Championship 4+ race with a time of 20:10.1. The foursome won the 5,000-meter event by a 24-second margin.
The quartet started the race in fourth-place and used the boat ahead of them to set a brisk rhythm. The boat gathered speed through the winding turns at the beginning of the course and overtook a boat about two kilometers into the race.
“We tried to pick up speed after each turn,” Darling said.
As the course opened into a straightaway, the team increased the pace and passed a second boat just before the four-kilometer mark. Although they did not pass the boat that started in first, the Blue Devils’ overall time was faster since the race used a staggered start.
The team carried the momentum from Saturday afternoon’s success into the three varsity races Sunday morning.
In the Women’s Championship 1x race, Darling and Lia Hart crossed the finish line in second and third place, respectively. Freshman Iraina Miles was the third Blue Devil to place in the top 10, finishing seventh.
An hour later the team cruised past its competition in the Open Pair races with a one-two-three performance from the boats of Straight/Natalie Zervas, Sarah Slaughter/Alissa Van Arnam and Boock/Harryman. Each crew passed at least three boats on its way to the finish. Straight and Zervas even passed members of the men’s race, which started about a minute earlier.
Duke’s fourth and final team of Leah Frank-Finney and Lauren Case captured the fifth spot with a time of 22:26.1.
Assistant coach Emily Egge said the team’s success in the pair races resulted from increased training.
“We’ve focused a lot this fall working in small boats on technical application,” Egge said. “So we row better together than we ever have before.”
The Blue Devils’ two boats in the Open 4x contest capped off the impressive weekend with second and 10th-place showings.
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