Rowing to Begin Fall Season Sunday

10/29/2016 8:00:00 AM | Rowing

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke rowing team will begin its fall season this Sunday at the Princeton Chase in Princeton, N.J. This year's event will be held on Lake Carnegie and begin at 9 a.m. Sunday with a men's varsity heavyweight 8+. The first Duke race will be the women's open 8+ at 9:30 a.m.

The Blue Devils enter their second year under head coach Megan Cooke Carcagno and assistant coaches Chuck Rodosky and Chase Graham. Last spring, the staff guided Duke to its first NCAA Championships appearance in program history as well as a second-place finish at the ACC Championship. The group was tabbed the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) National Staff of the Year and CRCA Region 3 Staff of the Year while Cooke Carcagno was named the CRCA Region 3 Head Coach of the Year and ACC Coach of the Year.

“I keep thinking back to where we were a year ago,” Cooke Carcagno said. “I don't have to talk to the team about being aggressive out of the gates. Last year we had to figure out how to do that. It's already a whole new team and mentality. We're going to come, race hard and try to play with the top four or five schools there. We want to see if we can get ourselves into the top five. If we can do that, we'll be in a really good spot.”

The Blue Devils will send three varsity 8+, four varsity 4+ and one novice 8+ boat into action this weekend. The varsity 8+ race begins at 9:30 a.m. with the 4+ action at 11:45 a.m. and the novice 8+ at 1:00 p.m.

“This fall I'm looking for a tremendous amount of fitness,” Cooke Carcagno added. “I want to be in a better physiological spot going into the spring than we were last year. I look at confidence. I just want to be light years ahead of where we were last year, not only in terms of what we can do, but what we're capable of doing. I want to figure out what combinations work, how people are moving boats and who is starting to rise to the top to contribute to another NCAA bid.”

After this weekend's Princeton Chase, the Blue Devils end the fall season at the Rivanna Romp on November 13 in Charlottesville, Va.

Duke Lineups
V8 (A) - Meagan Lew, Katherine Maitland, Olivia Mendonca, Isabel Ruby-Hill, Jessica Findlay, Shannon Tierney, Phoebe Donovan, Megan Conroy, Elizabeth Horne
V8 (B) - Karly Pearson, Sophie Simister, Lelia Boley, Karley Whelan, Madison Brown, Sarah Fletcher, Julia Weber, Celia Macrae, Rhea Bergman
V8 (C) - Tara Fagan, Tani O'Neill, Grace Garverick, Kiernan Spencer, Caroline Willis, Tara Christensen, Abby Artmann, Taji Phillips, Marissa Donadio
V4 (A) - Meagan Lew, Isabel Ruby-Hill, Jessica Findlay, Elizabeth Horne, Shannon Tierney
V4 (B) - Karly Pearson, Katherine Maitland, Olivia Mendonca, Megan Conroy, Phoebe Donovan
V4 (C) - Tara Fagan, Sophie Simister, Lelia Boley, Karley Whelan, Rhea Bergman
V4 (D) - Rani Duff, Julia Weber, Sarah Fletcher, Madison Brown, Celia Macrae