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The Daily Tar Heel

Rowing Squad Grabs Mixed Results vs. Duke

Using a cell phone for the first 10 races and a radio held up to a microphone for the last two, Furtek provided play-by-play from a motor boat as his North Carolina women's rowing team opened its spring season in the Carolina Dash against Duke on Saturday morning.

Although the sound system experienced technical difficulties at times, Furtek's race-calling -- interspersed with color commentary -- made it easier for the onlookers standing on the shore to keep up with the action.

"It's an exciting sport if you can follow it," said the fourth-year coach, who has been with the program since its inception, "but when you're standing on the shore, they go by, and we just give you the times -- oh, they won by 10 seconds -- what does that mean?

"But to see them come by, to get a feel also for what's happening in the race, I think is important."

The Tar Heels provided ample reasons for the team and its supporters to get excited even though no official score for the meet was kept. In the four-event format, North Carolina swept all three heats of the second varsity eight and the novice eight, while the Blue Devils did the same in the novice/varsity four and the varsity eight -- the meet's feature race.

Each race covered a distance of 1,000 meters.

"We never want to come up against Duke and lose, certainly," Furtek said, "but this early in the season, this format, I'm actually very proud of what we did, and I feel good about it. It's a good base from which to start."

The meet featured a display in contrasting styles of rowing: high-and-hard versus long-and-low.

Duke showcased the former technique, using short strokes at a pace of about 37 to 40 strokes per minute. UNC stuck with the latter strategy, keeping a pace of 32 or 33 very long strokes per minute.

Although UNC's varsity eight never finished closer than five seconds behind the Blue Devils, the unit closed the gap further with each heat.

Duke won the first heat by 7.2 seconds, the second by 6.59 seconds and the third by 5.57 seconds.

The Tar Heels practiced for three hours on the water Friday, twice the amount of normal practice time the day before a meet, Furtek said.

"We knew that our race today is not our top speed or peak speed by any stretch of the imagination, as it's not supposed to be because we have a lot of races ahead of us," said varsity eight member Laura Fogt. "But I definitely think we learned a lot and know the importance of working together and staying low throughout the race."

The Tar Heels will now prepare to leave the overcast skies that enveloped University Lake on Saturday for the sunny skies of Florida.

The team travels to Tampa next week for the President's Cup on March 10.

"We're looking forward to it," second varsity coxswain Kelley Gates said. "This kind of sets the mood. So we're really excited."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.

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