The men's track team finished its Atlantic Coast Conference season on an up-note at the ACC Track and Field Championships, held this weekend in Chapel Hill. Although placing last in team points in the conference, the Blue Devils posted some impressive personal efforts, enough to amass five team points.
Overall, the meet featured impressive performances by the powerhouse teams of the league. Clemson ran away with the meet, accumulating 181 points, as North Carolina placed second with 158 points. The middle of the standings included North Carolina State with 126 points, Florida State with 112, Georgia Tech with 67 and Wake Forest with 65. Finishing at the bottom of the pack, were Virginia (45), Maryland (17) and Duke.
The Blue Devils' finest race was run by the 4 x100 relay team of sophomore Michael Coles, freshmen Gregg Wilkerson, Rob Simler and Jeff Smith. The squad placed sixth in the race with a time of 44.29.
Competing in the discuss throw, Eric Emsick, who is also a member of the wrestling team, finished eighth in the meet with a throw of 145-6.
Sophomore Miles Hall also registered an eighth-place finish in the 800-meter with a time of 1:53.9. In the qualifying round on Friday, Hall ran the distance in 1:52.2, barely beating out teammate Doug Kling, who ran a competitive 1:52.67, for a position in the final round.
Despite the last place finish in the conference standings, head coach Al Buehler was pleased with his team's effort.
"It was a good effort all the way around," Buehler said. "This season we had a lot of people with personal bests, and this weekend we saw some personal and seasonal bests. We turned out our best performances at the right time of the season."
Some Blue Devils hope that their best performances are yet to come, as Duke will send two teams to the Penn Relays next weekend. The distance medley team of Coles, Hall, Kling and senior Mark Donahue running the 400-meter, 800-meter, 1,200-meter, and mile respectively, will be looking to improve on their 10:04.39 time set at last week's Duke Invitational in which the team qualified for this meet.
Also, the 4 x 800 team of Kling, Pat Kelly, Miles Hall, and Conrad Hall will compete at the Relays.
Regardless of the outcomes this coming weekend, Buehler sees the season as a success.
"Our season shows that if you work hard, it makes a nice steady impact all the way through. The team gave a great overall effort, and they were enthusiastic."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.