Let the rivalry begin.
Twenty-six sports, 26 chapters to one of the most storied rivalries in college sports.
Although the Duke rowing team is in just its first year, and was seeing North Carolina in action for the very first time, there was no explanation needed why it was the light-blue boat that was the mark to beat in Saturday's Head of the Chattahochee in Lanier, Ga.
And it didn't take long for the two to first meet. In the days opening race it was the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels alone coming down the stretch run of the converted Olympic lanes. But, like much of the day, it was the more experienced and older North Carolina team that took the gold medal, nipping out silver-medalist Duke by two seconds.
"We definitely have a rivalry built up, it definitely carries over into rowing," junior Eli Hayes said. "It's good to have schools that close be competitive. They went [varsity] one year earlier and have had two recruiting classes to our none.
"They were upset, they knew we were right in front of them [in the club 8+ race], but they couldn't do anything. The biggest thing was how close we were to Carolina. We wanted to be that close, but we didn't entirely expect to be.... The rivalry is huge, and we know they're going to give us a good race every time on the water."
On Saturday it was North Carolina who had the best races, edging out the Blue Devils in multiple events. However, with most preseason predictions favoring the Tar Heels heavily over Duke, the Blue Devils were more than pleased with their competitiveness just three months into the season.
"Carolina was upset because they couldn't beat us by more than two seconds," Hayes said. "After two years of recruiting classes, we were still able to consistently place, we had so many top sixes. UNC didn't do that, Clemson didn't do that. That says a lot about this team."
Duke's depth at Lake Lanier was due largely to the continuing improvement of assistant coach Shannen Daley's novice rowers. Although this is just the second regatta most of the Blue Devil novices have ever rowed in, they continued to impress their teammates, placing all nine entries in the top seven.
"To have novices that have never rowed before competing against girls that rowed in high school, it's amazing," Hayes said. "They were mostly competing against recruited girls, high school rowers, and to medal in every event and have every boat in the top-seven.... They did so well, we're absolutely ecstatic."
While the Head of the Chattahochee may have been billed as a regional regatta, it could have simply been dubbed the ACC preview. With Duke, UNC and Clemson, the regatta lacked only national powerhouse Virginia from the ACC. With the Blue Devils rapid improvement so far, the ACC season, like most of Lake Lanier this weekend, looks like clear waters ahead.
"I think that this is something we've been really looking forward to and our showing was really strong," Hayes said. "To be that close to Carolina shows how strong we are and how ready we are for the spring season. We've come so far it's amazing, and with every erg test and every step up the damn stadium steps, we're showing we're right here and we can take this. Its definitely in our reach."
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