The Blue Devils will look to make a splash this weekend with strong races against their conference foes.
Duke heads to Lake Hartwell in Clemson, S.C., this weekend for the ACC Championship. The Blue Devils were awarded the No. 6 seed in the nine-team field in all five events and will open competition with heats beginning Friday at 6 p.m. before Saturday morning finals.
Duke has had nearly a month to prepare for the weekend's events and has enjoyed the extra time spent paying attention to detail at practice now that classes have concluded for the semester.
"We've been able to spend a lot more individual time working with just specific boats. During exam week and after, we had one-on-one practices with one coach per boat, and I think that allowed us to clean quite a few things up," Blue Devil head coach Robyn Horner said. "As you get toward the end of the season, you do a taper in your volume, so we've had some practices where we've gone out a couple times a day and some practices that have been singles, but I think the quality level has been really high, and the kids have been really focused."
The weekend's races are Duke's first in nearly a month after a weekend trip to Lake Hartwell for the Clemson Invitational in mid-April. The Blue Devil 2V8 boat turned in a second-place finish April 18 with a time of 6:54.3 just four seconds behind Louisville, then shaved its time down to 6:48.0 a day later. The varsity eight finished fifth in its heat both days, with its fastest time coming April 19 at 6:46.5.
Horner said the lineups from the Clemson Invitational would remain largely the same heading into this weekend and that the four-week gap between races has given her squad plenty of time to fine-tune and prepare.
"They've made some good boat adjustments, their timing is a little better, rhythm is a little better," Horner said. "When you get to this time of year, you just want to elevate as much as you can. We're going in there as the sixth seed, and we're going to try to elevate as much as we can and compete and see if we can end up in a better spot than that."
Duke is very familiar with the course at Lake Hartwell, having visited twice during the season and many times in previous seasons. Horner noted that the seven-lane course traditionally has smooth waters and will create a competitive atmosphere for the ACC's nine teams.
The forecast for the weekend is expected to be nice, but Horner said she has prepared her team for the worst of conditions. The team's practice Thursday had some rough water early in the course, giving the Blue Devils some last-minute practice handling the elements.
"When it's really choppy and windy, your timing together has to be right on, and you have to have a little extra focus on getting your blades in the water," Horner said. "When the wind comes up and the water's bumpy, the boat tends to kind of bounce around a little bit more, so you have to really—as a group—be committed to working your hands at the catch and getting the blade locked on. The better you can do that, the more stability you're going to have with the boat bouncing."
Virginia—ranked third in the CRCA/U.S. Rowing Association Coaches Poll—enters the weekend as the favorite to claim its sixth consecutive conference crown and 15th in the last 16 years. Despite the addition of Louisville, which is competing in its first ACC Championship this weekend, the Cavaliers continue to be the measuring stick for the rest of the conference.
"Everybody tries every year [to beat them], for sure," Horner said. "With our conference getting bigger, I think definitely they're everyone's target, and I think all of our schools have to try to keep elevating their programs. Seeing them race and being pretty much a regular top-five school in the country, it allows us to kind of see what they bring to the table and then all of us in the conference have to keep moving in that direction and keep pushing for that level of speed."
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