DURHAM, N.C. – After competing in four regular-season regattas and claiming silver at the ACC Championship, the No. 10 Duke rowing team is set to make its third all-time appearance at the NCAA Championships this weekend at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Fla.
The Blue Devils were one of 12 at-large teams to earn a bid to the championships, and will join 10 conference champions at the first national regatta since 2019. The opening heats are slated to begin on Friday, May 28 at 8:36 a.m., while the Finals will conclude at 10:48 a.m. on Sunday, May 30.
HOW TO FOLLOW
- All three days of racing will be streamed on ncaa.com/rowing, with coverage beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday, 8:10 a.m. on Saturday and 8:10 a.m. on Sunday. Friday's repechage races will also be streamed at 4:10 p.m.
- Live results will be available after each race at ncaa.com/rowing.
RACING SCHEDULE
- Each boat division – Varsity Eight, Second Varsity Eight and Varsity Four – will compete in four heats in the morning on Friday, with the top two from each heat moving on to Saturday's semifinals. The remaining boats will take part in a repechage on Friday afternoon to determine the final four semifinalists in each racing division.
- Duke's Varsity Eight Boat, which enters the weekend seeded 12th in its division, will line up in the fourth heat at 9:36 a.m. The Blue Devils will see familiar foes in Michigan and Virginia, while also taking on Northeastern, Rhode Island and Washington State.
- The Blue Devils' 2V8, also coming in as the No. 12 seed, will go head-to-head with Northeastern, Stanford, Michigan, Tennessee and Gonzaga in the fourth heat at 10:24 a.m.
- The V4 squad earned the No. 8 seed in its division and will race in the first heat at 10:36 a.m. Duke faces Rutgers, SMU, Stanford and Wisconsin.
- Friday's semifinals will take place from 8:12-10:24 a.m., and will determine the lineups for Sunday's finals. The finals on Sunday once again kick off at 8:12 a.m. with the Fours D Final (places 19-22), and races will conclude with the top six V8 boats at 10:40 a.m.
- An awards ceremony is slated for 12 p.m. on Sunday.
VARSITY EIGHT
- Duke's V8 boat has put together a number of notable performances this season with a variety of lineups.
- The crew has won six races on the season and finished second three times, including a key performance at the ACC Championships that earned the Blue Devils a silver medal in the team standings.
- Three members of the V8 squad – Sydney Johnson, Gabriella Salvati and coxswain Tara Fagan – picked up All-ACC honors.
- At the Big Ten/ACC Double Dual on April 3, Duke outraced Michigan in the V8 for the first time in program history, finishing 0.88 seconds ahead of the No. 7 Wolverines to take first.
- The V8 was named the ACC Crew of the Week twice this season – once after the Big Ten/ACC Double Dual and again after winning the Lake Wheeler Invitational in Raleigh, N.C.
- The V8 projected lineup is Tara Fagan (coxswain), Lauren Sizemore, Amelia Shunk, Megan Lee, Morgan Linsley, Sydney Johnson, Brenna Morley and McKendree Densel.
SECOND VARSITY EIGHT
- The Blue Devils' 2V8 squad garnered five first-place finishes and four second-place results this season.
- The boat earned ACC Crew of the Week honors after the season-opening Carolina Cup on March 6, when its time of 6:28.3 was over 20 seconds ahead of second-place Clemson (6:48.5).
- The 2V8 had an impressive showing at the Virginia Invite on March 26-27, beating the third-ranked Cavaliers by nearly 10 seconds before outpacing UCF and Tennessee to complete the weekend sweep. The Volunteers enter this weekend as the No. 13 seed in the 2V8 division.
- The 2V8 projected lineup is Ithika Senthilnathan (coxswain), Rachel McNutt, Sydney Cikovic, Grace Butero, Erin Heyeck, Ema Kuczura, Savannah Herbek, Meera Chakrabarti and Caeley Tierney.
VARSITY FOUR
- Duke's V4 boat picked up four wins this season to go along with six second-place showings.
- At the Big Ten/ACC Double Dual, the crew defeated Ohio State by 2.6 seconds. The Buckeyes enter the NCAA Championships at the No. 6 seed in the V4 division.
- Duke bested 11th-seeded Syracuse at the ACC Championship, clocking a silver-medal time of 7:34.402 in the Grand Final.
- Against 15th-seeded Tennessee at the Virginia Invite, Duke's time of 7:46.5 defeated the Volunteers' 7:51.1.
- The V4 projected lineup is Sarah Royka (coxswain), Rivca Chaver, Kathryn Nash, Emilie Lijesen and Stella Haley.
DUKE AT 2016, 2019 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- The Blue Devils are set to make their third appearance at the NCAA Championships in the last five full seasons. Each of Duke's three all-time NCAA appearances have come under head coach Megan Cooke Carcagno.
- At the 2016 regatta, Duke closed out a record-setting season by winning the C Final in the V4 and 2V8 divisions, while the V8 took sixth in its C Final.
- The V4 squad, which entered as the No. 12 seed, trailed Syracuse through the first 500 meters of the finals, before coming on strong late to finish with a top time of 7:22.311.
- The Blue Devils placed 17th overall with 45 points.
- The 2019 Duke squad entered the NCAA Championships with a wave of momentum, as the team was coming off a silver-medal performance at the ACC Championship and the first gold medal in program history won by the V4 boat.
- The V4 started off Duke's final day of the national regatta with a sixth-place time in the Petite Final. The V8 followed with a fifth-place result in the C Final, before the 2V8 finished tied for second in the C Final under a no time taken finish.
SEVENTH SILVER MEDAL AT ACCs
- Duke claimed its seventh silver medal in program history at the ACC Championship in Clemson, S.C., on Saturday, May 15.
- The Blue Devils collected 84 points, narrowly beating out Syracuse's 81 for second place in the team standings.
- Duke went into the V8 Grand Final trailing Syracuse by one point, but the Blue Devils' top boat came through with a runner-up time of 6:30.266 to vault them ahead of the Orange.
- Duke's 3V8 boat got the morning started with a silver-medal time of 7:07.461. The V4 followed up with another silver, edging out Syracuse by less than two seconds.
- Juniors Sydney Johnson and Gabriella Salvati both earned All-ACC honors for the first time in their careers as they were tapped to the First Team, while graduate student Tara Fagan collected Second Team status for the second time (2019).
DUKE IN THE RANKINGS
- The Blue Devils enter the NCAA Championships ranked No. 10 in the Pocock/CRCA poll.
- The Blue Devils have held a spot in the top 20 in each of the last 20 released polls, dating back to April of 2019.
- This season, Duke has been ranked in the top 10 in six of the 11 released polls.
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