Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Duquesne University rowing team continued its 2024 spring season Sunday with a myriad of teams from around the country at the Knecht Cup, held in Cherry Hill, N.J., on the Cooper River Racecourse. The racing was scheduled to take place over two days, however, Saturday's racing was canceled minutes before the Dukes exited the bus to prepare their shells for racing due to safety concerns about the adverse wind conditions on the course.
Sunday's races featured a necessarily brutal progression model in order to fit in grand finals for all scheduled events in one day. In some races, racing was done in flights, with the fastest three times across the flight awarded medals, and in other races, crews raced in heats, with the winners progressing to grand finals. Depending on the number of heats, one or two additional crews with the next fastest time also advanced to grand finals to fill out a six-crew final. There were no lower-level finals, and in the races the Dukes competed in, the heats eliminated 75 percent or more of the crews racing.
Sunday morning brought with it much calmer weather and water, brilliant sunshine and all-or-nothing racing stakes. For two days the Duquesne team sat in their hotel discussing racing strategies to adapt to the changing course conditions and updated progression model, and the feeling across each crew was unanimously that the time for talking was done. It was time for racing.
In all crews, because of recent flooding in Pittsburgh, the Dukes had not practiced on their home waters since March 30, and had three practices on the water in total between March 30 and race day. Therefore, each race would be, in addition to a race with the other crews, a way to gain more experience, more strokes on the water, and a starting point from which to launch the rest of the season.
SECOND VARSITY 4+
The first race of the day for Duquesne was the Second Varsity 4+. With the start command, Duquesne came out of the stakeboat a little slower than their opponents but were able to get a good rhythm and settle into a good race cadence. At the 500-meter mark, the Duquesne crew didn't have contact with the lead pack of four crews, but began to pull away from Atlantic 10 rivals George Mason. Throughout the body of the race, the Dukes tried to get some more speed working in their favor, and they did have bursts where things picked up and the crew was swinging well, but ultimately they were not able to close any distance on the crews in front of them. The Dukes did pull out further on George Mason, defeating their conference rival by 23.5 seconds, but they were 14.2 seconds behind fourth place UConn, and just over 30 seconds behind A-10 opponent Fordham in second place. Delaware won the heat with a time of 8:11.49.
FIRST VARSITY 4+
Next up for Duquesne was the Varsity 4+. Eager to test themselves, the Dukes were a little slower off the start than the other crews, but found themselves a good race cadence. By the 1000-meter mark, the field had separated themselves into separate boats without any overlap. Georgetown had a sizeable lead, Fairfield had a solid second place, Merrimack third, Duquesne fourth and Villanova fifth. As the crews approached the last 500-meter, the Dukes did attempt a solid sprint and managed to close down some distance on Merrimack, however, the Warriors had a sizeable advantage, and the amount Duquesne closed down was not enough to overtake Merrimack. The race would finish in the order the crews crossed the 1000-meter mark, with Duquesne 12.3 seconds ahead of Villanova and 8.3 seconds behind Merrimack.
SECOND VARSITY 8+
After the fours raced, it was time for the Duquesne 2V8+ to take their turn on the course. By the time the 2V8+ started their racing, the water began to get a bit choppy, as a solid tailwind would propel the crews down the course. However, the wind also had a crosswind component to it which would challenge the coxswains and their steering.
Off the start line, the crews were all very close to each other, with only George Mason falling off the pace early. At the 500-meter mark, Villanova, Eastern Michigan, Duquesne, Massachusetts and Georgetown were all overlapped with some part of their bows and sterns. By the 1000-meter mark, the racing stayed tight with the lead crews. Georgetown nosed ahead of UMass, hotly pursued by EMU, with Villanova just barely ahead of Duquesne. In the third 500-meter, UMass took a heroic move to break through the lead that Georgetown built, while at the same time, the Dukes took over fourth place from Villanova. At the last 500-meter, all crews shifted to a sprint and Duquesne was threatened by Villanova but fended off the challenge, while at the same time trying to attack EMU. EMU was able to withstand the strong challenge from the Dukes while nearly closing in on second place, held by Georgetown. The final finish order would be UMass, Georgetown, EMU, Duquesne, Villanova and George Mason, in a very tight and competitive finish.
FIRST VARSITY 8+
The final crew of the day to take the course was the Duquesne Varsity 8+. Off the start, Radcliffe and UMass jumped ahead together to a half a boat lead over Duquesne and Fairfield, who battled side by side as they put distance on George Mason. As the crews settled into their racing rhythms, Duquesne began to push out ever so slightly overt Fairfield into a heavily contested third place, while Radcliffe started to try and open up a lead on UMass, who worked hard to make sure Radcliffe didn't get away. By the 1000-meter mark, Radcliffe firmly established themselves as the race leader, despite the constant challenges from UMass. Duquesne began to start to force their bowball up toward UMass, while Fairfield did their best to cling to Duquesne's stern deck. At 500-meter to the finish line, Radcliffe put open water on UMass. Meanwhile, Duquesne took an early sprint and threatened to push pass UMass, but UMass responded to the challenge enough to stymie the momentum of the Dukes and finished with about a seat of open water on Duquesne.
QUOTABLE
"With the aggressive progression model, no Duquesne boats progressed to the Grand Final races," head coach
Matt Carlsen said. "However, given the lack of water time the Dukes had to prepare for the regatta, it was great getting on the water for the first time in two weeks. Lining up against all of those great teams and being able to beat some of our A-10 opponents is a confidence boost. We definitely have more work to do, but I trust the team will continue to be adaptable as Mother Nature tries to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us."
RESULTS
2V4+: Fifth out of six in heat, Seventh of 12 on time across heats
1V4+: Fourth of five in heat, 17th of 25 on time across heats
2V8+: Fourth of six in heat, 12th of 23 on time across heats
1V8+: Third of five in their heat, 12th of 26 on time across heats
UP NEXT
The Dukes will return to action Sunday, April 21, at the George Mason Invite, held in Fairfax Station, Va., on the Occoquan Reservoir.
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