Duke cross country heads to Princeton Invitational

A month later than expected, Shaun Thompson hopes to see the payoff for his decision to redshirt the 2014 season. The graduate student has not competed since the NCAA indoor championships in March and enters the second month of the cross country season without a full race under his belt for the first time in his career.

Thompson and the rest of the Duke squad will head to Princeton, N.J., for the inaugural Princeton Invitational Saturday, with the women’s squad poised to build on the momentum of a second-place finish at the adidas Challenge Sept. 18 and nine of the 10 men looking to put their first race of 2015 in the books.

After a promising first half of the six-kilometer season opener at the Hokie Invitational Sept. 4—in which Thompson and 10 other Blue Devils formed the lead pack—the Duke men were unable to finish the competition due to lightning and had nearly a month until the next scheduled competition. Five runners participated in the 15-40 sweep of N.C. Central at the Bull City Classic Sept. 12, but of that group, only event winner Matt Luppino will be competing this weekend.

“This is the first time in my 25 years of coaching that we are heading into the month of October without really having competed our best guys,” Duke men’s head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “That can be cause of apprehension for a coach, but based on the training we have done, we are in a good place. We are going to surprise some people. We are flying under the radar a little bit.”

The Blue Devils—ranked 11th in the Southeast in the most recent U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll—will face a handful of nationally-ranked opponents this weekend with No. 19 Indiana, No. 24 Providence and No. 29 North Carolina.

Breaking into the poll at 11th in the region after their performance at the adidas Challenge, senior Madison Granger and the Blue Devil women will toe the line with a host of other Southeast teams, including third-ranked William & Mary, the fourth-ranked Tar Heels and eighth-ranked Wake Forest.

Granger and classmate Anima Banks captain a small group with nearly half as many freshmen as upperclassmen, but the young squad exceeded expectations at the adidas Challenge, placing six runners in the top 20. Granger was the first Duke harrier across the line, finishing the five-kilometer course in 17:11.7 and third overall, but freshman Sheridan Wilbur was not far behind, stopping the clock at 17:20.3 to place sixth.

Granger, Banks and Wilbur will lead a squad of nine Blue Devils, including freshmen Gabrielle Richichi and Kim Hallowes, through their first six-kilometer race of the season Saturday.

“This group is highly motivated. These girls have had week upon week of being competitive on workout days,” women’s head coach Christine Engel said. “I think our training has been very consistent, which is one of the biggest goals in our sport. This weekend we have the opportunity to see how we match up against some really top teams.”

Duke will not escape the dreary weather by traveling north this weekend, with rain expected to start early on race day as Hurricane Joaquin, but Ogilvie said the team will take it in stride.

“It’s a grass course, so it’s going to be wet and muddy,” Ogilvie said. “It’s what everybody in cross country secretly hopes for—a muddy mess out there.”