Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Duquesne University rowing team opened its 2023-24 campaign Saturday by taking part in the Head of the Ohio Regatta on the Allegheny River.
The Dukes welcomed 14 freshmen to the team, replacing 14 outgoing members of the 2023 senior class. With such a large number of new faces on the team, the entire squad was buzzing with nervous energy to see how they would fare on the day. The day itself, while pleasant enough, with brilliant sunshine bursting through patches of clouds and temperatures hovering in the mid to low 50s, also provided the student-athletes with a major challenge from a stiff and gusty headwind. The start line was sheltered from the wind, enabling the races to begin on time, however, all day, the closer the athletes got to the finish line, the more challenging the course conditions became, with unsettled waters for the bottom half of the course, and occasional whitecaps near the finish line.
Women's 1x and Lightweight 1x
The first crews off the launch dock for the Dukes' season were athletes rowing in the Women's Open 1x or Women's Open Lightweight 1x events. Duquesne had five athletes (
Natalie Hesch,
Grace Kennevan,
Cherise Dicke,
Maggie Ray,
Bridget Abbott) entered in the Open 1x and two (
Nora Grace Foglia and
Isabella Abbott) entered in the Lightweight 1x.
In the Open 1x, the Dukes faced off against themselves and a pair of entries from the regatta host Three Rivers Rowing Association. All of the Duquesne athletes got off to a solid start, rowing 24 to 26 strokes per minute across the start line, and settled into their individual races. Right around 1,000 meters into the race, across the board, the athletes were met with the full force of the headwind. As the wind assailed the Dukes and the athletes from the host organization, some athletes handled the conditions well, and were able to move their boats well. In the end, it was an athlete from Three Rivers Rowing Association that took home the gold medal, followed 59 seconds behind by sophomore
Cherise Dicke for silver, who led fellow sophomore
Grace Kennevan by 13 seconds for bronze. Junior
Maggie Ray trailed Grace by 37 seconds for fourth place, an athlete from TRRA finished fifth, while senior
Bridget Abbott and sophomore
Natalie Hesch filled out the rest of the field in sixth and seventh positions.
In the Lightweight 1x, the Dukes faced a more varied field, racing against athletes from Three Rivers Rowing Association, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Cincinnati. Much like their counterparts in the Open 1x, the student-athletes were buffeted by the wind, making the competition as much about racing the other athletes as it was competing with nature itself. The two athletes from Duquesne, senior
Isabella Abbott and sophomore
Nora Grace Foglia, were only about 11 seconds apart on their finish times, but were beaten by athletes from Three Rivers Rowing Association, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Cincinnati, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, while also defeating an entry from Three Rivers Rowing Association (TRRA).
Women's Open 4+
The athletes from the 1x back on land, the coxswains from the Women's Open 4+ were able to gather intelligence on the course conditions and adapt their race plans accordingly. Duquesne lined up to race with Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve, Franklin & Marshall, Miami (Ohio), Ohio State, Old Dominion, Penn State, Robert Morris and Pittsburgh.
The Duquesne boats were spread throughout the field. The boat with freshman
Jessica DeSaro as coxswain crossed the start line first, while 12 boats back was the crew with junior
Rory Brouillard as coxswain, and two boats behind Rory was a boat coxed by sophomore
Paige Engel. The first Duquesne crew with DeSaro coxing positively blasted through the start line, and the crew was able to manage the conditions exceptionally well. One of the course marshals complimented the Dukes coxswain, saying she had "the best line (he'd) seen all morning."
Further back in the field, the other two Duquesne entries played a game of cat-and-mouse down the course with each other; despite starting two boats apart, Engel's crew quickly passed a crew from Pitt and started their pursuit of Brouillard's crew. Brouillard's crew also passed a crew from Old Dominion and Miami (Ohio) to push their way forward. Engel's crew kept up the pursuit, battling through other crews and the conditions to close down distance on their teammates. At the end of the race, it was DeSaro's crew that earned a commanding victory, a full 51 seconds over the second place Pitt Panthers, who also took third place. Further back in the pack, it was Engel's crew that prevailed in the cat-and-mouse game, taking seventh place over Brouillard's eighth place crew by a margin of 0.63 seconds.
Women's Freshman / Novice 8+
Shortly after the Women's Open 4+ race began, a crew of Dukes freshmen approached the start line for their first race representing Duquesne. The Dukes started in the middle of the pack in the six boat race; ahead of them were crews from Penn State, Old Dominion, Carnegie Mellon, and behind them were crews from Miami (OH) and Pitt. With a sharp call from their freshman coxswain
Kat Muha, the Dukes attacked the racecourse, quickly challenging the crew from Carnegie Mellon that started in front of them. With CMU passed, the Dukes tracked down Penn State as well, setting their sights on the Monarchs of ODU. As the Dukes charged headlong into the waves, the water from their home river churning, the Dukes found enough speed to pass the Monarchs and from there, increase their lead on the rest of the field, taking home first place by a margin of one minute 15 seconds over ODU, while Pitt took home the bronze medal.
Women's Open 8+
The final race of the day for Duquesne had three entries, and also the most challenging conditions yet. The wind was positively churning the lower half of the race course, with gusts of 24 miles per hour blasting each of the boats and roiling the waters. Into the frenzy, the Dukes launched three crews, coxed by sophomore
Meghan Mangan, senior
Catherine Egan and senior
Julia Laurie, to take on crews from Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, Miami (Ohio), Pitt, Old Dominion, RMU and TRRA.
All three crews had a fantastic race, and each was exciting in its own right. The crew coxed by Mangan was the first across the start line, pursued closely by a crew from Old Dominion. Off the start, the Dukes were at a rate of 28 strokes per minute, while ODU was overrating Duquesne by four strokes per minute. In the first 1,000 meters of the course, the Monarchs closed down water on Duquesne, and it looked as if ODU would pass the Dukes. The Monarchs, however, could not sustain their rate into the headwind, and the Dukes, with home course advantage and a cheering section on every bridge in downtown Pittsburgh, found just enough speed to rebuff the challenge from ODU and take home a first place victory by a margin of just over three seconds.
Further back in the field, the crew coxed by
Catherine Egan got off to a hot start, immediately tracking down the Colonials from Robert Morris and setting their sights on crews farther in front of them. Over the course of the race, the Dukes were able to track down Miami (Ohio), CMU and Case Western and gave an excellent challenge to Pitt, as well. For their efforts in tracking down so many crews and fighting the river itself, Egan's crew earned a bronze medal, 14 seconds behind ODU's silver medal crew.
The last crew of the day to cross the start line was coxed by
Julia Laurie. Laurie's crew got off to a solid start, finding and passing a crew from Pitt, but then they had a lot of water between them and the next crews in front of them. Undaunted, Laurie's crew stepped up to the challenge and was able to reel in RMU and Miami (Ohio) by the time they crossed the finish line, while gamely pursing CMU. It was a solid race for the third Duquesne boat, and the effort earned a seventh-place finish in a field of 12.
Reactions
Duquesne President Ken Gormley was on hand to welcome the winners of the Women's Open 8+ back to the boat bay. Excited by their victory, President Gormley took the opportunity to hoist the US Steel Cup with the crew of
Alexandra McKee,
Grace Kennevan,
Megan McMahon,
Samantha Szlachta,
Meghan Mangan,
Danielle Smith,
Natalie Hesch,
Cherise Dicke and
Julia Casey.
"It was a good day for our team," head coach
Matt Carlsen said. "We had some last-minute health issues, but the team rallied and we were able to walk away with some medals. We have a couple hard weeks of training coming up and I'm hopeful we can make all of the boats even faster."
The Dukes are off this weekend and return to action Saturday, Oct. 21, on Neville Island at the Yinzer Cup Regatta, hosted by Robert Morris.
Duquesne Results (Full Results):
Open Women's 1x: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th of seven crews
Lightweight Women's 1x: 4th and 5th of six crews
Women's Open 4+: 1st, 7th and 8th of 19 crews
Women's Freshman/Novice 8+: 1st of six crews
Women's Open 8+: 1st, 3rd and 7th of 12 crews
Lineups:
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