If the fall season is meant to be a sort of dress rehearsal for the spring, then the Blue Devils have a lot to look forward to come their spring 2015 season.
Duke will continue its fall racing schedule with the first race at home. The Blue Devils will face Central Florida at Lake Michie Saturday morning. The head race—a race against the clock—begins at 9 a.m. and the sprint race—a head-to-head race—begins at 12:15 p.m..
Head Coach Robyn Horner wants the fall to be about coming together as a team. The Blue Devils brought in a highly-touted freshman class that will compete for time in the first two boats. Improving on the team chemistry is something that will be stressed in the UCF race and in the fall going forward.
“A lot of times in the fall it is really a time when we can come together as a group”, Horner said. “The boats will be mixed up a bit relative to what we did in the Charles. The fall is when we get ourselves rowing together as a group. We have a lot of young kids so we are trying to get them more experience. “
The Blue Devils will send three different boats to compete Saturday. In the morning, the top eight rowers will split into boats of four and race the Golden Knights' in two 4,500-meter head races. The other eight Blue Devils will race against the lower end of Central Florida's squad. In the second race of the day, there will be a 4,500-meter race not in sight of the new Duke boathouse and then there will be three 1,000-meter sprint races in front of the boathouse to mirror the spring.
Saturday’s race will be all about getting live racing practice in anticipation for the grueling spring season.
“The shorter thousands will be for getting the feeling for the speed and we will line up for those side by side," Horner said. “We are trying to mirror a little bit what it’s like in the spring.”
The talented freshman class that came in this fall has had an immediate impact for the team. The class will try and lead Duke over the hump in the conference where it has competed for an ACC championship, but never won. Last year, the Blue Devils came in fifth behind Virginia, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Clemson. The freshmen will look to change that, starting with this fall.
With a top-15 overall finish at the Head of the Charles already under their belt, the Blue Devils will look to continue their momentum against Central Florida.
“[The] Head of the Charles was a big trip and we took four freshman there," Horner said. “Of the seven rowers that came in this year, all of them are contributing at a high level. We are looking to have all of those kids in our top two boats.”
Central Florida came in second in the American Athletic Conference last season, making Saturday’s race a challenge for the young Blue Devils. The Golden Knights will be good preparation for an ACC schedule, where Duke faces some of the top competition in the nation every weekend, including Virginia who has won 14 of the last 15 ACC titles.
“We have been doing a lot of work without much outside competition," Horner said. “It is a great opportunity to get on the line and go after someone else. I think we will have a successful weekend. I am confident that we are ready to go.”
Looking forward, Duke will race Tennessee on Lake Michie Nov. 9 and then will travel to Charlottesville to participate in the Rivanna Romp, where the Blue Devils will face boats from Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Old Dominion and Miami.
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