The spring season is officially underway for the Blue Devils
Following an exhibition race at Tennessee last weekend, Duke competed in its first official competition Saturday on Clemson's Lake Hartwell. Plagued by harsh winter weather this offseason, the Blue Devils entered the regular season having put in less training time on the water than head coach Robyn Horner would have liked. But Duke still managed to put forth a strong showing against the Tigers and Boston, earning second and third-place finishes against the Clemson’s varsity fours.
“Even though obviously everyone likes to win, we thought that we were going to be at a bit of a disadvantage since Clemson has been on the water since the beginning of February,” Horner said.
Although the Tigers may have had the advantage of warmer weather, both southern schools benefited from better training weather than the Terriers.
Duke placed second and fourth in both races featuring the lead varsity eights. Clemson posted two dominant top finishes with times of 6:40.85 and 6:48.89, respectively. In the first race of the varsity eights, the Blue Devil boats finished in 6:47.53 and 6:56.82. The top squad for the Terriers rounded out the field with a time of 7:02.10.
“I definitely think we have room for improvement,” Horner said. “We set out a game plan of what we wanted to try and accomplish…and I think we were also focused on just trying to get out and compete.”
The second V8 race produced identical results, with the Tigers and Duke going one and two, respectively, rounded out by another fifth place finish for Boston University. But the Blue Devil 2V8 showed improvement finishing just 00:01.22 behind the Clemson 2V8 in the latter race, having trailed the Tigers by more than four seconds earlier in the day.
“I think our 2V actually had a really good race this weekend. They were really tight time wise with the Varsity and they were right there with Clemson’s boat,” Horner said. “I thought from our team standpoint [the 2V] was really kind of the standout performance of the weekend.”
Duke will have a chance to face the Tigers again later in the season as they return to Lake Hartwell for the Clemson Invitational in April and the ACC Championships in May. The Blue Devils will have a weekend off from racing and hope to make needed adjustments before traveling to San Diego March 28th for the two-day San Diego Classic.
Horner will look to her senior leadership—namely captains Tara Dalton and Caroline Williams—to get the team ready to compete again in two weeks.
“Their energy is really positive and I think that’s so important because we have such a large group of athletes,” Horner said. “They know that we can go faster and they’re just trying to help people understand how to do that. [We have] great leadership this year.”
With a strong showing in San Diego, Duke will look to break back into the CRCA/US Rowing rankings having received votes in the last poll. The Blue Devils finished the 2014 season in the top 20 and are hoping to return there soon.
“We’re hopeful that we will be in the top 20 as the season progresses,” Horner said. “So that’s kind of what we’re shooting for and it’s important. We want to be able to compete at that level.”
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