SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Duquesne rowing took home three medals in finishing seventh at the 2023 Atlantic 10 Championship on Fish Creek in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The Dukes, who placed two of three scoring boats in the Grand Final, finished with 22 points. George Washington won the overall title with 52 points.

Duquesne's first varsity four, consisting of coxswain Meghan Mangan and rowers Olivia Sullivan, Mikayla Bayto and Natalie Hesch earned a silver medal om the Grand Final with a time of 9:07.84 which was good for eight points.
  DU's second varsity eight, with coxswain Rory Brouillard guiding rowers Jillian Peters, Bridget Abbott, Brigid Haugh, Aynslee Sibley, Hannah Valenty, Isabella Trovato, Mikaela Nestel and Samantha Szlachta, earned eight points with a sixth place finish in the Grand Final.

In non-scoring races, DU's second varsity four, with coxswain Catherine Egan and rowers Grace Kennevan, Kiran Dahnke and Eliza Mance, won its five-boat race in a time of 9:26.52 to claim gold, while the third varsity eight with coxswain Paige Engel and rowers Rosemary van der Net, Maggie Ray, Caitlin DeStefano, Olivia Silbert, Kelly Ardrey, Kathryn Ackerman, Sarah Ricketts and Megan Elliott earned a bronze medal with a time of 8:31.00.

The first varsity eight boat finished second in the Petite Final to add six points to the team score.

Senior Madison Barker garnered First Team All-Conference honors for the Dukes.

May 12^th, 2022
Saratoga Springs, NY
Fish Creek Racecourse

Duquesne women's rowing wrapped up their Spring 2023 campaign on the Fish Creek Racecourse in Saratoga Springs, NY. The city of Saratoga Springs, NY is probably more widely known for its historical role in the American Revolutionary War and for the horse track founded in 1863 than it is for the sport of Rowing, however there are several high-level regattas that take place on Fish Creek, this year's Atlantic 10 Championships being one of them. Being in a city known for its history and its speed, the Dukes went to the racecourse on a sun-drenched, idyllic morning, to hopefully find some speed and make a little history themselves.

First Varsity 4+
The first boat of the day on the course for the Dukes was the 1V4. In their heat of five, only three would advance to Grand Finals, so their objective was clear: make it through to Grands. Off the start line, the Dukes started ahead of the field, and maintained a hotly contested first place, with Rhode Island applying a lot of pressure to take the first place position. By about 800m into the race, URI pushed their bowball ahead of the Dukes, however Duquesne hung right on with URI, maintaining overlap with the Rams until the Rams picked up into a sprint for the last bit of the race. With URI sprinting, and several boatlengths of open water between Duquesne and the boat in the final qualifying position, LaSalle, the Duquesne coxswain elected not to sprint and just maintain their race cadence to the finish line, having already qualified for Grand Finals.

In their Grand Final, the Dukes took the course again, this time into a stiff headwind, hunting for a medal. Off the start line, Duquesne locked themselves into a medal spot and began to battle it out with the other crews, with URI pressing ahead, Duquesne second, and George Washington just on the stern deck of Duquesne. With the wind streaking straight up the course, all of the crews had additional drag to push against which added a lot of time to the race. Enduring the wind and the challenges from GW, Duquesne broke free from GW by the 500m to go mark but still trailed URI by about a boatlength of open water. At the final sprint, the wind really tried to assert itself but URI handled it well, taking first, the Dukes second, and GW finished third. With their second place finish, the Duquesne First Varsity 4+ earned the first A10 Championship silver medal in program history, and it was the team's highest placement in a Grand Final since the Novice 8+ won gold in 2015.

Second Varsity 8+
The second boat out on the course for Duquesne was the 2V8. As with the 1V4, the 2V8 had a heat of five boats, with only the top three advancing to Grand Finals. Off the start line, the pack was tight across all five lanes, but by the 500m mark, the pack had separated into two groups: URI and Fordham at the front of the pack, with a slight edge to URI, and then Dayton and Duquesne, with a slight edge in favor of the Dukes, while George Mason fell off the pace of the lead two groups. By the 1000m mark, URI pushed up almost an entire boatlength on Fordham, while Duquesne sat a couple seats open water back on Fordham but a couple seats open on Dayton. Over the second half of the race, each crew maintained those margins, with URI electing to pull out a final sprint, while Fordham and Duquesne maintained their race cadence, with a spot in Grand Finals secured.

In their Grand Final, the Dukes looked to see if they could better the program's best-ever finish of 5^th, which they placed in 2018, 2016, and 2009. Off the start, the crews separated themselves into two packs, a lead group at the front consisting of Fordham, URI, and George Washington, while LaSalle, UMASS, and Duquesne were in a tight group themselves. With it being the Grand Finals, no crews were willing to give an inch to another crew and every advance would be earned and hotly contested. About 500m into the race, the headwind really began to play havoc with the coxswains, with their steering adversely affected. At the 1000m mark, GW and URI separated themselves from the pack, with half a boat advantage to GW, while UMASS held third, just ahead of a hotly contested fourth place Fordham battling with Duquesne in fifth, and LaSalle a seat open water down on the Dukes. By the final sprint, Duquesne fell off from Fordham, and the wind took its toll on the Dukes, which allowed LaSalle to sneak into fifth place by 0.8 seconds over Duquesne in sixth.

First Varsity 8
The third boat of the day on the course for the Dukes was the 1V8. The 1V8 had a four boat heat, in which only the top three would advance to Grand Finals. The Dukes entered their race hoping to advance to the Grand Finals for the first time since 2016. Off the start line, Duquesne jumped out to a lead, but George Washington and UMASS responded immediately, creating a two-boat race for first, while St. Joe's and Duquesne fought for the final qualifying position. By the 1000m mark, GW had definitive first place, UMASS held second but St. Joe's was challenging them hard for second, while Duquesne challenged St. Joe's for third. As the boats entered the final sprint, GW maintained their lead, but St. Joe's pushed up for a bowball-to-bowball race with UMASS, and Duquesne sat a couple seats down on the race for second and third. Unfortunately for the Dukes, who tried to gain a third place finish, with St. Joe's and UMASS battering each other for second and third place, the extra competition between those two crews pushed them out of reach of Duquesne, and Duquesne moved into the Petite Final.

In their Petite Final, even though they were out of medal contention, Duquesne still had championship points to race for, so their aim was to win as many points as possible toward the team championship. Rowing into a very stiff headwind, the Dukes got off the line in second, barely a bow deck down to Fordham but open water ahead of George Mason. By the 1000m mark, Duquesne brought themselves back to level with the Fordham crew, going bowball-to-bowball, stroke for stroke through the hallway point. As the crews entered the bottom half of the course, the Fordham crew responded to the challenge, pushing out to a two seat lead over Duquesne, but Duquesne responded well after Fordham finished their move and pushed themselves back about a bow deck down on Fordham. As the two crews entered the final sprint, Fordham started their sprint earlier than Duquesne, and the early sprint paid off for the Rams; Duquesne responded well with their sprint and closed down half a boat of the boatlength lead Fordham opened up, but ultimately ran out of racecourse to close the whole gap and finished a hard-fought 8^th place overall.

Second Varsity 4+
In the Second Varsity 4+ race, the Dukes were in a Final Only race; there were no heats, no second chances, just one race to find their standing in the A10 Conference. The event itself returned to the race schedule in 2022 after not being contested since 2013, and in 2022, the Dukes finished 6^th of 7 entries. Facing a field of five this time around, the Dukes looked to improve their performance, and got off the start line well, holding first place. By the 1000m mark, Duquesne opened up an open water lead on Fordham and Fordham had open water on the rest of the field. From there, the Dukes controlled the rest of the race, maintaining their open water advantage even through the sprint, leading wire-to-wire and earning themselves a first place victory for the first time in program history.

Third Varsity 8+
Similar to the Second Varsity 4, the 3V8 event was a Final Only event, meaning that the athletes had only one shot at finishing as well as possible. The event itself returned to the race schedule in 2022, after not running since 2015. This year's entry was the first entry for Duquesne since 2015, where they finished second. In this year's race, Duquesne got off the line well and found themselves in a tightly contested group of four boats; Fordham's crew was excluded from the race because they were not able to lock on to their stakeboat by the time the race started. Going through the 500m mark, Duquesne held a slight advantage on URI and George Washington as well as UMASS. By the 1000m mark, URI closed down the gap well and pushed out to a slight advantage over Duquesne, while Duquesne led both GW and UMASS. By the 500m to go mark, URI had a little bit of open water on Duquesne, who was under fire from a strong UMASS challenge, with GW trailing. Duquesne did their best to respond to the challenge and stymied the UMASS charge, but then GW unleashed a tremendous sprint to beat out Duquesne at the line by about three seats, while Duquesne beat out UMASS for a third place finish.

Reactions
With the racing concluded, Duquesne finished 7^th overall in the Team Points competition, beating out Dayton and George Mason. The Dukes had two boats earn historic finishes; the 1V4 earned the first silver medal in program history as well as their highest finish ever in the event, while the 2V4 won their event for the first time in the history of the program. The Third Varsity 8 also returned for Duquesne after eight years. When reflecting on the season, Head Coach Matt Carlsen said "I'm very proud of the year we had and the depth we were able to create on the team. To see the confidence of each student-athlete build from when we started in August to when we finished in May was awesome. Seeing all of the hard work pay off and to walk away with three top 3 finishes is a testament to that confidence. The graduating class has left their mark on what Duquesne Women's Rowing can accomplish and I am very excited for next year's team to continue to build off of this year. Go Dukes!"

With their 2022-23 campaign concluded, the Dukes will return to racing in October 2023 to kick off their 2023-24 season.

Full results here


2023 A-10 ROWING CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
 

Team	Points	1V4	2V8	1V8
George Washington	52	7	18	27
Rhode Island	49	9	16	24
Massachusetts	36	6	12	18
Saint Joseph's	30	3	6	21
Fordham	28	5	14	9
La Salle	26	4	10	12
Duquesne	22	8	8	6
Dayton	21	2	4	15
George Mason	6	1	2	3

DUQUESNE BOATS

1st Varsity 8 (8th of 9 overall)
Heat - 4th - 07:21.805
Petite Final - 2nd – 8:10.23 (6 points)

Coxswain: Elizabeth Kuhn
Stroke: Cherise Dicke
7: Rebecca Swanson
6: Madison Barker
5: Payton Campbell
4: Britta Wheeler
3: Lauren Boyce
2: Isabella Abbott
Bow: Allison Barrett


2nd Varsity 8 (6th of 9 overall)
Heat -3rd - 07:33.408
Grand Final - 6th - 8:34.757 (8 points)

Coxswain: Rory Brouillard
Stroke: Samantha Szlachta
7: Mikaela Nestel
6: Isabella Trovato
5: Hannah Valenty
4: Aynslee Sibley
3: Brigid Haugh
2: Bridget Abbott
Bow: Jillian Peters


1st Varsity 4 (2nd of 9 overall) - SILVER MEDAL
Heat - 2nd - 08:19.752
Grand Final - 2nd - 9:07.836 (8 points)

Coxswain: Meghan Mangan
Stroke: Megan McMahon
3: Natalie Hesch
2: Mikayla Bayto
Bow: Olivia Sullivan


3rd Varsity 8 (3rd of five boats) - BRONZE MEDAL
Final - 3rd - 8:31.00

Coxswain: Paige Engel
Stroke: Megan Elliott
7: Sarah Ricketts
6: Kathryn Ackerman
5: Kelly Ardrey
4: Olivia Silbert
3: Caitlin DeStefano
2: Maggie Ray
Bow: Rosemary van der Net


2nd Varsity 4 (1st of five boats) - GOLD MEDAL
Final - 1st - 9:26.52

Coxswain: Catherine Egan
Stroke: Nya Muffoletto
3: Eliza Mance
2: Kiran Dahnke
1: Grace Kennevan


ATLANTIC 10 AWARDS

COACH OF THE YEAR
Marci Robles, George Washington
 
FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
Madison Barker, Duquesne
Natalee Dee, La Salle
Maren Geier, Fordham
Aislinn O'Brien, Saint Joseph's
Rosie Turnbull, Massachusetts
Michelle Mulchy, Massachusetts
Julia Fortin, Rhode Island
Catie Castle, Rhode Island
Alexa Nealy, George Washington
Naomi Lee, George Washington
Ezi Emenike, George Washington
 
SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
Katiya Pedrouzo, George Mason
Kaelyn Stepic, Dayton
Anya Casey, Fordham
Anna Gambescia, Saint Joseph's
Riley McDade, Saint Joseph's
Alexis Harvell, Massachusetts
Nicole Jones, Rhode Island
Hailey Pardi, Rhode Island
Anna Golbus, George Washington