After a strong showing against top teams at October’s Princeton Chase, Duke went to Charlottesville, Va., where they showed again they have the potential to close the gap on one of the nation's top teams.
The Blue Devils sent three varsity-eight boats, five varsity-fours, and a novice eight to compete in the Rivanna Romp on the Rivanna Reservoir. Against teams from Clemson, Columbia, Louisville, Pennsylvania and the host Virginia, Duke finished with hard-fought second-place finishes from its top V8 and V4 boats in 4,000-meter races. The Cavaliers have traditionally dominated the ACC and been a top-10 program nationally.
“Today showed us we can do it,” Blue Devil head coach Megan Cooke Carcagno told GoDuke.com. “We are in a position to be top 10, but we will have to continue to improve to actually do that by May.”
In the V8 race, Duke placed second, sixth, and 17th. The top V8 boat, consisting of junior coxswain Meagan Lew, seniors Phoebe Donovan and Elizabeth Horne, juniors Megan Conroy, Jessica Findlay and Katherine Maitland, and sophomores Sophie Simister, Isabel Ruby-Hill and Shannon Tierney took second at 13:20.1, 19 seconds behind Virginia’s first-place V8 at 13.01.1.
The first half of the race was a toss-up between the Blue Devils and the Virginia 2V8 and Pennsylvania’s V8. Duke managed to pick up the intensity at the second half, pulling ahead of the Quakers and narrowly holding off the Cavaliers' 2V8 by 0.3 seconds.
The other Blue Devil eights held a consistent performance in their respective places. Duke’s 2V8 notched a sixth-place finish at 13:40.3 ahead of the Virginia 3V8 by three seconds. The Blue Devils' 3V8 posted a 17th-place finish at 14:26.2.
"Today was a good day for Duke,” Cooke Carcagno said. “Of course we want to be closer to [Virginia], especially in the first 2K of the race. That's the only part I wish we had done slightly better.”
Duke’s fours had a similar run in their placements. The Blue Devils were the only non-Virginia boats to crack the top eight placings, with Duke’s V4 taking second at 14:52.7 ahead of Virginia’s 2V4, 3V4, and 4V4.
Despite trailing first-place Virginia’s V4 by a margin of more than 10 seconds through the entire race, the Blue Devils' top four held out a consistent lead in front of Virginia’s 2V4 to score a three-second victory against the Cavaliers.
The Duke-Virginia matchup continued with the Blue Devil 2V4 and 3V4, where Duke’s second four put up a stiff fight to the Cavalier’s 3V4 and 4V4. The Blue Devils started the first half of the race in fourth, just 0.2 seconds ahead of Virginia’s third four. But Duke couldn’t keep the same intensity as its Cavalier counterparts, falling behind by six seconds and ending at a sixth place 15:08.6.
The Blue Devils' 3V4 maintained a lead against Louisville’s 2V4, holding on to secure an eighth place finish at 15:23.8.
Duke’s other fours were stuck toward the back of the ledger, with the Blue Devils’ 4V4 finishing 21st, just 0.6 seconds in front of Louisville’s 3V4. Duke’s 5V4 came in 24th out of 25 boats at 16:15.1.
The Blue Devils’ novice eight took fourth place at 15:37.2. Duke’s novice squad lagged third place Clemson’s first novice team by more than 45 seconds, but managed to keep a three-second lead in front of the Tigers' second novice eight.
“I'm proud of our novices getting better and our team’s effort to support each other today,” Cooke Carcagno said. “I think we are in a great spot heading into winter training. Now each member of our team will have to decide, ‘Do I want to be OK?’ or, ‘Do I want to be great? Like top-10 team kind of great.’”
The Blue Devils now enter their winter training season, during which the meat of their training for the spring begins. With very competitive showings in the fall, Duke is on course to be a contender behind Virginia at the ACC championship and get back to the NCAA championship.
The Blue Devils will be back on the water March 18 for the Carolina Cup Scrimmage in Clemson, S.C.
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