Duke rowing tallies impressive success with multiple boats at Big 10 Invitational

After battling through tough conditions in its last regatta, the 14th-ranked Duke rowing team finally saw some sunshine at the Big 10 Invitational in Sarasota, Fla. The Blue Devils raced five boats in 15 races across the two-day meet, walking away with several notable successes.

The Second Varsity Four, led by coxswain Mia Khamish, kicked off Friday’s competition with a time of 7:17.466 and a second-place finish. The boat inched out Ohio State by less than a second to secure silver and finished just 3.4 seconds behind the winning boat from No. 5 Brown.

Then, the Varsity Eight and Second Varsity Eight both notched third-place finishes with respective times of 6:28.903 and 6:35.676. In the V8 race, competition was once again close with No. 12 Ohio State, but the Blue Devils still managed to pull ahead at the very end and secure the podium spot by less than a second. 

The Third Varsity Eight boat found the most success Friday, cruising past UCLA, Michigan, Clemson and Iowa to a first-place finish. Its winning time of 6:46.804 came from a mix of experience and fresh talent, as the boat held three freshmen, two sophomores, a junior, two seniors and a grad student.

Saturday morning saw back-to-back second-place finishes from the Second Varsity Four and Varsity Four. Duke rowers powered past boats from No. 13 Rutgers and No. 16 Indiana but were ultimately edged out by No. 15 Tennessee.

The 2V8 boat, which competed for the second time on Saturday, also battled closely with the Hoosiers in its final race. Though it fell short and finished with a time of 6:37.881, the rowers improved upon their time from Friday by just under seven seconds. The almost-exclusively upperclassmen boat, led by senior coxswain Ithika Senthilnathan, reaped obvious benefits of power and experience.

The Blue Devils competed well against the 17 other schools present, bringing down highly-ranked teams and battling through several close races. They will return home to compete at the Lake Wheeler Invitational next weekend, which Duke annually co-hosts with North Carolina.