CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The rowing team began its fall season this past weekend at the XXXVIII Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Mass. In the Sunday afternoon races, Duke's championship eight squad finished 16th of 47 with a time of 17:35. The Blue Devils lost to top finisher U.S. Rowing by 1:13.
In the champ four race, Duke finished 13th of 33 with a time of 19:50.
It was the first year that Duke had entries in two championship events��a feat that made head coach Robyn Horner particularly happy.
"We're adding depth to our program... this was an opportunity to test ourselves deeper than just the eight," she said.
The champ eight, in particular, put out an aggressive race. Senior Amelia Booth, who has raced at the Charles for the past four years, was pleased with her boat's performance.
"It was our best Head of the Charles ever," she said. "The last three years we've come across the line thinking we could have done better, not this year."
The Head of the Charles has a staggered start in which boats begin the race at 15 second intervals. While some crews find it difficult to maintain motivation during the three mile race the Blue Devils said they were fortunate to have Clemson starting one boat in front of them.
"Positioning helped us," Booth said. "We had someone to work against the whole way down... as soon as we got through Clemson, BC was right there."
Halfway through the race, Duke's eight clashed oars with Clemson when coming out of Weeks Footbridge, near the 1.5 mile mark. Clemson would not yield, and Duke was forced to ease off and free its oars. The Blue Devils recovered quickly, and were able to overtake Clemson.
In the end, Duke finished 23 seconds in front of the Tigers.
Duke's champ four was positioned behind the University of Pennsylvania, and was able to get past the Quakers within the first 500 meters of the race. Senior Kim Meyer said she was though the four performed well too.
"We were perfectly set, it was smooth, and we were swinging together... were able to walk up on Penn right away," she said.
Baily, has coxed three times at the Head of the Charles, and was very proud of her four's performance.
"We've been practicing alone, just our four, up against eights," she said, explaining the fears of her boat just prior to the race. "This was our first time having fours in front of us and behind us."
Horner was impressed by both boats and attributes their successes to "knowing that the best crews in the country were here and finding the intensity." Horner claimed that the two boats, after practicing the course twice before their races Sunday, were "at their best both mentally and physically."
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