On Saturday, April 11th and Sunday, April 12th Duquesne Rowing was at Lake Mercer near Princeton, NJ for the Knecht Cup Regatta. 70 schools from around the country attended this regatta to make it one of the largest East Coast Regattas of the spring season and a very competitive regatta that included teams from the ACC, Big 12, Atlantic 10, and AAC conferences. High winds on Saturday morning caused the regatta to be postponed until late in the afternoon and caused many schedule changes.

Racing began early on Saturday morning with the women's varsity four event with 31 boats entered. The Duquesne line up of stroke Victoria Snyder, Alison Kane, Mary Kate Keenoy, Emily Ames, and bow Grace Hindes finished first in their heat over varsity fours from Delaware, UNC, Buffalo, and George Mason. In the semi-final on Sunday morning the Dukes finished fourth behind Tulsa, Old Dominion, and Nova Southeastern, while ahead of Penn State and Villanova. This finish qualified the boat for the Petite Final. In what was a very tight race in the final the Dukes finished third. Bucknell (7:45.9) crossed the line first followed closely by Kansas (7:47.8). Duquesne, Army and Nova Southeastern battled the length of the course and all crossed the line within 1 second of each other (7:54.9, 7:55.3, 7:55.9). UCF finished in 6th place.

The second event of racing for the Dukes was the women's second varsity four of line-up stroke Kaitlyn Clem, Nicole Wozniak, Margot Gagen, Maureen O'Brien, and coxswain Amanda Booth. This event had 24 entries. In very rough conditions the boat finished fourth in their heat over Miami and Fairfield. Due to schedule changes final placements were based on time. The Dukes qualified for the petite final where they finished 4th over boats from UConn, the University of North Carolina, and Drexel, while behind Bucknell and two entries from Old Dominion.

The women's freshman/novice eight of coxswain Amanda Booth, Samantha Dunn, Olivia Delaney, Mary Katherine Byrne, Cassandra Holder, Marianna Manfredi, Sydnie Pennington, Shelby Rocco, and Olivia Szallai raced on Sunday morning in an event that boasted 26 entries. The Wisconsin Lightweights showed their fitness and speed crossing the line first in 6:58.9. The Dukes finished second (7:23.1) ahead of the eights from George Mason (7:35.05), Old Dominion (7:40.9), Marist (7:59.7), and VCU (8:20.2). Due to the schedule changes their time advanced them to the petite final later in the day. Bucknell crossed the line first in 7:21.3. Duquesne (7:27.5) battled with Drexel (7:26.1) in the last 1000m meters falling just short of a second place finish. Old Dominion (7:32.5), George Mason (7:36.5), UMass (7:39.1), and Villanova (7:44.7) rounded out the field.

The freshman/novice four event had 30 entries. The Duquesne line-up of coxswain Jean Geary, Lindsay Snodgrass, Antonia Maffia, Morgan Starczewski, and Madeleine Troppe battled the length of the course with the four from the University of North Carolina. The Dukes won the battle crossing the line in a time of 7:56.27 with UNC less than .1 of a second behind in second (7:56.36). The Dukes posted the fastest time out of the heats and advanced to the grand final. In another battle the length of the course the Dukes finished second in 8:07.6 behind the four from the University of New Hampshire (8:03.6) and again just ahead of UNC (8:08.3). Kansas (8:12.3), UMass (8:14.4), Bowdoin B (8:17.0) and Bowdoin A (8:26.8) rounded out the top 7.

The women's second varsity eight was able to race their heat on Saturday afternoon after heavy winds began to die down. The line-up of coxswain Caroline Dirr, Lauren Turner, Rachel Swain, Meredith Starczewski, Lindsay Wyllie, Sydnie Pennington, Anne Stevens, Marianna Manfredi, and Jenna Boyd crossed the line fifth in a time of 7:10.1. The progression only allowed the top four finishers (UCF 6:46.1, Miami 6:54.4, Holy Cross 7:00.3, UConn 7:05.5) to advance to the semi-finals on Sunday morning.

The women's varsity eight boasted 31 entries and also raced heats late on Saturday as the sun began to set. Coxswain Faith Caldiero, Courtney Purslow, Alexandra Watts, Lauren Hughes, Hannah Mazur, Julia Borsari, Emily Herzig, Gretchen Swabe, and Serena Benages raced in a tight heat. Kansas crossed the line first (6:45.6), followed by West Virginia (6:47.7), Duquesne (6:48.3), Holy Cross (6:49.2), and Marist (7:07.2). The top 3 finishers advanced to the semi-final along with the top 3 times. With a fast heat all boats but Marist advanced. The semi was also a very tight race from start to finish. Crossing the line first was Tulsa (6:49.1) followed by Buffalo (6:53.3), Kansas (6:54.0), Duquesne (6:55.5), UConn (6:55.65), UNC (7:00.01) and Old Dominion (7:01.48). The fourth place finish advanced the Dukes to the petite final along with Kansas, Bucknell, Holy Cross, Temple, and Wisconsin Lightweights. Kansas crossed the line first in 6:51.2 with Bucknell close behind (6:53.2). The Dukes battled the final 1000m with Holy Cross (7:00.05) and Temple (7:00.62), ultimately finishing fifth in 7:02.43. The Wisconsin lightweights did not race in the final due to time constraints.

The Dukes will be back in action this weekend on Tonawanda Creek Saturday against Buffalo and Mercyhurst before traveling to Morgantown, WV to race WVU on Sunday.