Michigan's Chris Webber had an unpleasant experience with time (outs) in Monday night's NCAA championship game. But this weekend at the Duke Invitational Track Meet at Wallace Wade Stadium, the 1000-plus competing athletes will hopefully have a much more pleasant encounter with time. Their times, that is.
The meet will be employing the new "FinishLynx" timing system, a highly advanced computer system, which can record athletes times with greater speed and accuracy.
This new innovation that registers all times as the competitors cross the finish line will be hard at work as the invitational features 45 collegiate teams from New York to Florida and as far west as Michigan and Ohio.
One of the highlighted events of this competition is the distance medley relay in which the Duke men's track team will be looking to qualify for the Penn Relays.
The squad is comprised of sophomore Pat Kelly, who will be running the 1200 meter leg; sophomore Michael Coles, who will run the 400 meter leg; junior Doug Kling, who will run the 800 meter leg; and Mark Donahue, who will anchor for the Blue Devils by running the mile.
"The first three legs ran really well in Lynchburg [this weekend]," said men's assistant coach Norm Ogilvie. "Michael needs to come through for us, and he is ready to. He is very experienced, having had the rare opportunity of anchoring for us at the Penn Relays as a sophomore and junior."
Ogilvie estimates that in order to qualify for Penn, the team must run the event in around 10 minutes, with Donahue clocking a 4:10 mile.
The women's medley team will also be looking to qualify for the Penn Relays, and expects that a time under 12 minutes is needed to do so.
The Duke team includes Liz Berghausen running the 800, Christine Gregorski the 400, Liz Hanley the 1200, and Jeanne McFeely the anchor mile.
Some of the other Duke women looking ahead to this weekend are seniors Renae Stahl who is looking to improve her school record in the long jump in her final home meet, as will classmate Jessica Garruto in the 100 meter sprint.
Freshman Megan Mitchell will look to improve upon the school record she set in the shot put last week.
Perhaps the feature event will be the "Bull Durham Mile" which is the mile race for non-collegiate athletes that includes a $500 purse to the winner.
The women's mile will feature some of the fastest milers on the east coast, including Kate O'Hern, a student at the Fuqua School of Business and who runs for the Westchester (NY) Track Club; Lori Henes, an assistant track coach for N.C. State; and one time national champion, Melody O'Reily, nationally ranked miler.
The men's mile boasts of six runners out of the filed of ten who have run the distance in 4:02 or faster. The favorite in the field is Matt Kendel from the New York Track Club who has run the mile in 3:58.
The collegiate mile will be held on Saturday afternoon immediately following the Bull Durham miles. Last year, Blue Devil Randy Jones won the men's competition, and with his departure after graduating the field is considered to be wide open.
The pole vault event should be highly competitive between Kevin Brown of North Carolina, who is currently the best pole vaulter in the nation, and Scott Miller. Both athletes have recently notched successful vaults of well over 18 feet.
Many meet records are expected to fall this weekend, especially in the sprinting events, due to the level of competition.
Among the elite track teams competing are Boston and Syracuse as well as Atlantic Coast Conference rivals North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest. In addition, St. Augustine, which has an impressive string of Division II national championships, will be competing.
Blue Devils Kling and Miles Hall will be looking to score an impressive showing in the 800 meter event. However, one of the most exciting and competitive events of the meet will be the 4x400 relay.
The field features some of the fastest teams in the country, and it is expected that more than one of these teams will qualify for the NCAAs.
"Looking at the competition, this will be a high quality meet on both the men's and the women's sides," women's head coach Michael Forbes said.
The meet will be begin late Friday afternoon and continue all day Saturday, with the most exciting events beginning at noon on Saturday.
"Admission is free to all who want to attend, so we would love to see some support for our track teams," Ogilive said. "So come down to Wallace Wade, sit on the bleachers and work on your tan while supporting our team."
This weekend's Duke Invitational is the only home competition for the Blue Devils. It is their last chance to shave their times before the ACC championships April 16-17.
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