Duke's rowing team concluded an impressive season with an imperfect finale. The Blue Devils placed 11th among 21 teams in the South/Central Region Sprints over the weekend at Melton Hill Lake in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The Blue Devils captured a total of 185 points and improved by four places from last year. The first varsity eight, however, did not qualify for the NCAA Championship as it had hoped.
Ohio State garnered the regional championship title with 366 points, followed by Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State and Tennessee. These teams will compete in the NCAA Championship later this month in West Windsor, N.J.
"Our region is certainly the tightest," assistant coach Emily Egge said. "I don't think it is a stretch to say we are in the most competitive region."
After a relatively easy preliminary heat Saturday morning, the first varsity eight failed to earn the crew a spot in the grand final, in which all six teams would advance to the NCAA Championship. No ACC team qualified for the grand final.
"As disappointing as it is not to make to the NCAA, we were happy with the way we raced," senior Tonia Boock said. "It is hard to be disappointed considering how competitive the race was."
Tennessee was the only team that qualified for the NCAA Championship from the South region and with Virginia's surprising loss, no team from the ACC got a bid.
The second varsity eight made it to the petite final for the first time in recent years but had a tough start and finished fourth.
"The competitiveness was outstanding this year," assistant coach Jim Lister said. "It has become more competitive and we moved up. That tells we are doing the right thing."
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