SARASOTA, Fla. – No. 12 Duke rowing faced strong competition in the opening day of the Big Ten Invitational in Sarasota, Fla., on Friday.
The Blue Devils' Varsity Four and Second Varsity Four highlighted the day with a pair of top times to race past crews from Michigan, Iowa and UCLA in the evening session.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Duke's Varsity Eight and Second Varsity Eight opened the morning session with back-to-back third-place finishes behind crews from Brown and Ohio State. The V8 clocked a time of 6:32.514 while the 2V8 finished at 6:39.197.
The V8 and 2V8 boats collected two second-place finishes in the evening session, improving their times by nearly five seconds to 6:27.100 and 6:34.226, respectively.
The Varsity Four recorded a time of 7:04.473 to claim second in the morning session, just five seconds behind Brown.
In the evening session, the V4 outraced crews from Michigan, Iowa and UCLA to post a winning time of 7:13.320, nearly eight seconds ahead of Michigan in second.
UP NEXT
The Second Varsity Eight boat kicks off the second day of the invitational at 8:46 a.m. on Saturday, facing crews from Indiana, Rutgers and SMU.