April 12, 2011
Results
This past weekend the Duquesne women's rowing team competed against over 25 teams from across the country in their biggest race of the spring season. With high water for most of the week prior to the race the women only got one day of practice on the water before traveling to the race on Friday.
On Saturday morning the Duquesne women began the day with the women's varsity four event. The boat of cox: Michelle Karkos, stroke: Rachael Ross, Colleen Cannan, Hannah Olinger, and bow: Meghan McNichol raced a very tough and close heat against teams from UMass, BC, Colgate, Robert Morris, and Fordham. The dukes crossed the line fifth just 8 seconds behind first place BC and only 4 seconds behind 4th place Robert Morris. There was a 18 second margin between them and 6th place conference foe Fordham. BC, Colgate, and UMass automatically advanced to the semi-finals with the top three finishes in the heat. Duquesne and Robert Morris also advanced due to their heat being one of the fastest of the morning. Duquesne posted better times in their heat than teams from Temple, West Virginia, Rutgers, La Salle, and Wisconsin lightweights. Later that afternoon the Duquesne four was racing their semi-final with teams from Kansas, Delaware, Colgate, Villanova, and La Salle for a spot in one of three finals. The field proved to be a little too much for the Duquesne women who finished fifth with a time of 8:50.98 ahead of La Salle (9:14.22) and 9 seconds behind fourth place Colgate. This advanced them to the third level final on Sunday where they were up against UMass, UNH, UNC, La Salle, and the Wisconsin Lightweights. In a very exciting finish the dukes sprinted past the Wisconsin Lightweights to finish 4th in 8:35.40, just .5 second ahead of the Badgers.
The Duquesne women's novice four also saw some strong racing this past weekend. As the second event to launch on Saturday morning the boat of cox: Olivia Twomey, stroke: Stephanie King, Regina Dutz, Kamryn Thorpe, and bow Megan Parmarter was up against teams from Delaware, Pitt, Miami, Lehigh, and UMass. UMass came away with the first place spot just 8 seconds ahead of the Duquesne women who finished second in a time of 9:04.5 advancing them to the semi-finals Saturday afternoon. This time was the 9th fastest time out of the 41 boats that competed in the morning heats. That afternoon the Duquesne novices squared off against NYU, Loyola, WVU, Old Dominion, and Marist. While their time of 8:35.62 was the 6th fastest in the semi's, it brought them across the line 3rd which advanced them to the Petite Final on Sunday. In a tough PF the Duquesne women finished fourth in a 8:48.80, 16 seconds behind first place Fairfield, and about 7 seconds behind both Iona and UConn who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The third boat to race on Saturday morning was the Women's Varsity Eight of cox: Kristy Pietrone, stroke: Derin Ongun, Taylor Shannon, Maria Scinico, Beth Brennan, Katie Arias, Kelly Beck, Rachael Thornton, and bow: Maria De Iuliis. In a strong heat against George Mason, Drexel, Fordham, BC, and La Salle, the Duquesne women posted a time of 7:33.69 and finished fifth ahead of conference foe La Salle by 19 seconds. Drexel finished first with a time of 7:09.39 and later went on to finish second on the Petite Final on Sunday. The numbers show that the varsity eight has gained significant speed since it saw Fordham and La Salle at the Murphy Cup just two weeks ago. Having posted a time 2 seconds behind La Salle and 28 seconds behind Fordham, the Duquesne women are now just 16 seconds behind Fordham and 29 seconds ahead of La Salle. They will look to gain as much speed as they can in this last week leading up to their A-10 Championship.
The final heat to launch Saturday morning was that of the Second Varsity Eight with cox: Mary Ketchner, stroke: Emma Keller, Sam Newhart, Liz Rhodes, Laura Dunlap, Hilary Lovett, Maggie Brophy, Aly Enslen, and bow Teresa Guzik. Their strong heat put them up against teams from the Wisconsin Lightweight team, Drexel, UNC, WVU, and Lehigh. The Duquesne women's finished fifth in a time of 8:12.98, 1 second ahead of Lehigh (8:13.74), and 12 seconds behind fourth place UNC (8:00.84). The Wisconsin Lightweight team won the heat posting the fastest time of the morning with 7:25.21. The Badgers later went on to win the event in a tight finish .1 seconds ahead of the boat from Delaware.
The team is now looking ahead to their Atlantic-10 Championship that will take place back on the Cooper River in Cherry Hill, NJ April 16th. With unrowable water at this time the Dukes are doing what they can to prepare for what will be a very tough race.
