The women's crew team's toughest opponent this weekend in Washington, D.C. may not have been either of the two teams it raced against. Rather, the Blue Devils' greatest foe was the wind.
Duke managed to win three of its four races, but the windy conditions drove them off course, both literally and figuratively.
The Blue Devils raced against Georgetown in the morning, but the high winds prompted coaches to shorten the afternoon's races against George Washington from the normal 2,000-meter length to 1,750 meters. After two George Washington boats were swamped as they came into the dock, the last event of the day, the varsity-eight race, was canceled.
Before the day prematurely ended, though, the Blue Devils enjoyed great success.
The day's first race featured Duke's first- and second-novice eight boats versus Georgetown. The Blue Devil first-novice boat did not even have to sprint at the end of the race, as it was a full five boat lengths ahead of the next finisher, the Georgetown junior varsity boat. Duke's second-novice squad had been in front of both Hoya boats for the entire race before a wind gust seemingly grabbed the boat as it approached the final 500 meters.
The Blue Devils were thrown so far off track they were forced to try to get back on course by rowing around the outside of the course markings. Once they succeeded, they sprinted the end of the race to beat the Georgetown novices.
The morning's second and final race was also Duke's only loss of the day, as the varsity-eight boat was defeated by Georgetown's first varsity. Interestingly, this was the first race of the season in which the Blue Devil varsity-eight boat was composed of only upperclassmen.
Duke thrived in the afternoon's shorter races. For the first time, the Blue Devil novices were racing against their peers-other freshmen.
In the novice race, the Blue Devils beat both the George Washington novices and second-varsity rowers by a full boat length.
"I was pleasantly surprised that both our freshman boats were able to take down not only their peers, but also take down another team's second-varsity boat," coach Robyn Horner said.
The Blue Devil second-novice team then defeated the George Washington second- and third-novice boats, as well as treacherous winds, in the day's most exciting race. The hard wind made it very difficult for rowers to get their oars in and out of the water, as waves splashed over the oars and into the boats.
Sprinting vigorously at the end of the race, Duke won by less than three seconds.
The wind eventually claimed victory, however, as the day's last event was canceled. But that did not dampen the spirits of a very pleased Horner.
"As much as people value the wins we had this weekend, I value the knowledge we gained from racing the past two weekends against the top varsity boats in the country," Horner said.
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