At the San Diego Crew Classic this weekend on Mission Bay, the Blue Devils recorded the best finishes overall in program history.
In a weekend of great performances, the highlight was a first-place finish by the Varsity Eight in the Cal Cup Grand Final. The top Duke boat finished almost five seconds ahead of second-place Kansas State and improved its time from the Saturday heat by three seconds.
“I thought the nine of us went out really confident in ourselves—that’s the first time all year that we’ve felt that we had the best product that we could bring,” junior Katie Dukovich said. “We just decided that we were gonna win…. We knew that we were more fit than the other crews, that no one should be first but us.”
The last time the Blue Devils won the Cal Cup was at the 2012 San Diego Crew Classic, a season which culminated in a third place finish at the ACC Championships.
Duke's success was not limited to the Varsity Eight performance. The 2V8 and Varsity Fours each finished in the top six of their respective races. The 2V8 placed sixth in the Jackie Ann Stitt Hungness Grand Final with a time of 7:05.13, improving on its heat time by more than six seconds. The Varsity Four qualified for the Sunday petite final of the Karen Plumleigh Cortney Cup and placed fourth in 8:18.01.
The second Varsity Four competed in the final-only Women’s Collegiate 4+ B on Sunday, finishing third behind Southern California and UC San Diego with a time of 8:17.19.
“The 2V4 had a final only today and they raced super well and finished third in their event that had USC and UCLA, so that was good,” Duke head coach Robyn Horner said. “The standout for us was obviously the Varsity Eight winning the Cal Cup and then the 2V4 finishing third in that final was also a really good achievement.”
Going into the weekend of racing, the Blue Devils planned to elevate their stroke count, implement some strategic race maneuvers and improve on their performance at their last competition March 14. Horner said she was satisfied with the execution of the race plans.
Duke also benefited from calm weather on the water after preparing for adverse conditions that can often be found on Mission Bay.
“We thought it would be a little rougher than it was and we thought the current would be a little more, but it actually was pretty good,” Horner said. “I don’t think they noticed much impact from the water conditions.”
After a triumphant weekend, the Blue Devils return to practice with improved confidence and will hope to build off their performances going into the final two races of the regular season.
“I think this race was a great morale boost for the team, we finally saw that we can win. I think this was the first time in awhile that we believe in ourselves,” Dukovich said. “With that momentum, I’m really excited to see what we can do.”
The Blue Devils will have two weeks off from competition before heading to Leonia, N.J., April 11 to face Columbia and Northeastern, which received votes in the URCA/ US Rowing poll but remains unranked.
“I think now that we have the stroke rate up a little higher, we’re going to work to generate more power per stroke,” Horner said. “We also need to work on our sprinting at the end of the race…. We know this next trip it’ll come down to that.”
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