With almost four months off in between races, the Blue Devils could have used favorable conditions for offseason practice. They didn't get them.
Duke will kick off its spring slate with a scrimmage against Tennessee Sunday in Oak Ridge, Tenn., at 10 a.m. The teams will race 1,500 meters four times and for the Blue Devils—who saw their offseason heavily disrupted by winter weather—the event will offer a measuring stick before entering the busiest part of their schedule.
"We want to check our raw speed. Even though it's a shorter section, you can still see in the body how our rhythm looks, what our boat speed looks like," head coach Robyn Horner said. "From an athlete standpoint, they want to check what their poise looks like. Are they ready to go head to head with someone? We haven't practiced that much, but it will still be good to see how quickly we're getting off the line."
Horner said Sunday's 10 a.m. start time is tentative because of more low morning temperatures expected near the Volunteers' campus in Knoxville. Similar temperatures have given Horner and her staff headaches all winter long, as she said the 28-degree Fahrenheit threshold they use to decide whether or not to row outside kept them indoors time and time again.
The Blue Devils got their extra chances to do weight training and running, but were on the erg far too often for their head coach's liking.
"Usually [the weather is] one of the advantages of being a more southern school," Horner said. "This is the first time we haven't been able to be on the water in the 17 years that I've been here, so normally we would already be out rowing for at least a month by this time."
With its disrupted offseason work in mind, Duke will try to make the most of its weekend before taking on Clemson, Syracuse and Boston University in Clemson, S.C., next weekend. Horner said her team would be leaving for Tennessee early Saturday morning to try to get some work in and scout the course in the afternoon before Sunday's competition.
And although her expectation for her team's times Sunday might be slightly lower because of its limited preparation time, she still expects a level of intensity consistent with an official event. Tennessee lost 10 of its 11 pieces in a scrimmage against North Carolina last week, so the Blue Devils still have a good chance to have a productive weekend on the water.
" I just want them to be really ready to compete. It's really just to take a snapshot of everything we're doing," Horner said. "It will allow us because we're going into spring break to pinpoint the things we really need to focus on."
The Blue Devils will have a busier spring break than most and also had an eventful week before the break. For the eighth consecutive year, Duke hosted its Row for the Cure Ergathon at the Bryan Center Plaza Tuesday afternoon to raise money for breast cancer.
"It has importance on two levels," Horner said, "One the rowing community has really gotten behind it. We used to go to a regatta called Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and they did it as part of the race, so teams would compete in the fundraising element of it and get ready for the race. On another completely different level we've had many moms and family members that have had breast cancer, so it's very personal."
Ryan Hoerger contributed reporting.
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