Over the Homecoming weekend Duquesne Rowing took to their home course for their first race of the fall season. The 28th Annual Head of the Ohio brought fall weather with it. Cold temperatures, a little rain, hail, and high winds made for some tough racing conditions.

The first event of the day for the Dukes was the Women's Open 8. Duquesne had three varsity eights entered as well as an alumni eight in the 17 boat field. The A entry of coxswain Faith Caldiero, Gretchen Swabe, Courtney Purslow, Hannah Mazur, Julia Borsari, Alex Watts, Serena Benages, Meredith Starczewski, and Lauren Hughes earned a first place finish in 15:19.3, 9 seconds ahead of the A entry from West Virginia University (15:28.6) and 23 seconds ahead of third place University of Pittsburgh (15:42.7). Duquesne's B entry of coxswain Grace Hindes, Maureen O'Brien, Kaitlyn Clem, Mary Kate Keenoy, Lindsay Wyllie, Emma Riegel, Emily Ames, Tory Snyder, and Alison Kane finished sixth in the event (16:17.5) just 5 seconds behind the A entry from Marietta College (16:12.1), while the Duquesne C entry of coxswain Caroline Dirr, Lauren Turner, Jenna Boyd, Marianna Manfredi, Rachel Swain, Emily Herzig, Anne Stevens, Margot Gagen, and Nicole Wozniak finished seventh (16:23.0) ahead of the A entry from Robert Morris University (16:28.9). The alumni entry of coxswain Elizabeth (Mills) Bailey ('08), Rachel Thornton ('12), Mary Deet ('10), Kristina Powell ('09), Elizabeth Brennan ('12), Elizabeth Rhodes ('13), Halyna Tarnawskyj ('08), Lauren Thorpe ('08), and Brittany DelPizzo ('09) finished fifteenth ahead of varsity eights from John Carroll University and Hocking Valley Rowing Association.

The second event of the morning for Duquesne was the Women's Collegiate Novice 4. After just three weeks of learning to row on the water the entry of coxswain Jean Geary, Samantha Dunn, Cassandra Holder, Caroline Beaupre, and Olivia Delaney finished fourth in 21:54.1. The top three finishers were Marietta (21:06.7), Liberty (21:32.2), and Case (21:35.4). "I was very excited to have the opportunity to race this boat. This is the first time that we have had rowers ready to race in a four this early in the season. The conditions were really rough due to the wind but the women handled it well," said Novice Coach Jenn Langzettel.

Due to the high winds and rough water conditions racing was cancelled mid day and Duquesne was unable to race their alumni 2x, varsity fours, and frosh eight.

Head Coach Joseph Setting had this to say about the day. "Our crews were presented with challenging winter-weather like conditions for the first race of the season: temperatures in the 40s, high winds, and very choppy water. We talk a lot during the season about focusing on what we can control in terms of our rowing by executing our race plans and not allowing outside variables to weigh us down or be a factor in our performance and our crews embraced that.

It was great to have our V8 start out the season in our only home race with an outright victory in the Open 8 event. They battled with the West Virginia V8 all the way up the course and it made for some excellent racing with neither one giving into the conditions around them. It was a hard fought victory and a nice start to the season, but we have a lot of work ahead of us. The second and third V8s have been battling it out in practice for the past week and the race results reflect that. Although both finished in the top half of the Open 8 event, we need them to make bolder strides in the next three weeks before our next race, which I expect they will. It was certainly unfortunate that we could not contest our other boats due to the race cancellation, but the weather conditions continued to deteriorate into the afternoon and not moving on with the race schedule made sense."

The next race for the Dukes is the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta on Saturday, October 25th in Philadelphia, PA.