This time of year, the trees along the banks of Lake Carnegie are painted deep orange—a Princeton orange.
Against this backdrop, students gather on cobblestone bridges and look out over the blue expanse, watching, waiting for the glimpse of a bow cutting through the water—an indication of one thing.
It's rowing season.
The Blue Devils opened their season Sunday with a top-five finish in the women’s varsity four and a 17th-place finish in the varsity eight at the Princeton Chase. The three-mile regatta held at Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J, featured 34 teams, including six programs that ended the spring campaign ranked in the top 25.
Duke competed with eight boats in all—five in the varsity eight and three in the varsity four. Pacing was a point of weakness for the Blue Devils across the board, as they largely failed to match the pace and general level of intensity set by the competition from stroke one.
“The message I got from every single athlete was that it just wasn’t aggressive in the first half,” Duke head coach Megan Cooke Carcagno said. “We built into the pace and were really aggressive in the second half, but you just can’t get away with that kind of style against these good crews.”
Duke’s varsity four team of senior coxswain Simone Pitre, freshman Isabel Ruby-Hill, sophomores Jessica Findlay and Katherine Maitland and junior Phoebe Donovan captured the best finish of the day for the Blue Devils. The five-woman team reached the halfway point in 9:57.5, and held on for fifth place with a time of 17:29.4.
In the women’s varsity eight, Duke struggled in the early going, but found its footing just in time to make things interesting. After falling to 24th place at the midway point, the Blue Devils began an aggressive second-half surge that carried them past seven boats in the final mile and a half.
Unfortunately for Duke, the push was too little too late, as the Blue Devils were unable to undo the damage caused by their sluggishness out of the gate—which resulted in a 17th-place, 15:31.2 finish.
“You have to be aggressive in the warm up, you have to be aggressive in the first minute, and you have to be really aggressive all the way down the line,” Cooke Carcagno said. “Our team didn’t rise to that challenge, but we learned a lot.”
Despite the disappointing result, Duke’s performance in the women’s varsity eight was not without its silver lining.
The Blue Devils' varsity eight boat is young and aching for racing experience. The nine-woman squad includes two freshman in Ruby-Hill and Sophie Simister and two sophomores in Findlay and Maitland. For these young athletes, battling top-notch competition carries with it valuable experience that they can draw from in future races.
“It’s a young team, and they’re learning a ton,” Cooke Carcagno said. “Racing and winning is a skill set just as much as any other aspect of any other sport. Learning how to compete and raise your game on race day is a skill set. These guys are learning how to do that.”
In the varsity four, Duke’s B boat finished in ninth place. The E team crossed the line next at 19th, followed by the D boat in 20th and finally the C boat in 23rd.
In the varsity eight, Duke’s B boat captured 29th place and the C boat took 50th.
The team now has two weeks to reflect on its experiences at the Princeton Chase. The Blue Devils return to competition at the Rivanna Romp Nov. 14 in Charlottesville, Va.
“If we learn from today and we go into our next race with a more aggressive tone, then today will have been completely worthwhile,” Cooke Carcagno said. “That’s why you do these races in the fall. It gives you the opportunity to see where you line up and then also where your big flaws [are].”
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