On an unseasonably warm fall morning, the women's cross country team finally found success at the NCAA District III Championship held Saturday at Furman University in Greenville, S.C.
The team finished 18th in the 40 team field with 538 points. This was the largest field ever to attend the meet. Although the Blue Devils did not improve on their 16th-place finish last year, they did achieve several other goals.
Duke demolished fellow Atlantic Coast Conference foe Georgia Tech, which finished almost 150 points behind in 27th place. Virginia Tech, a team which had previously beaten the Blue Devils twice this season, finished in a distant 23rd place with 605 points.
The first individual runner for the team was senior Jeanne McFeely, who completed the race in 18:11, 43rd overall. This was a personal best time for McFeely.
"I felt like I let myself down at the ACC meet," McFeely said. "I really pulled myself together and finished in the top 20 in the conference this weekend."
One reason for McFeely's improvement was a better job of pacing herself during the race.
"I was more competitive and wanted to do well," McFeely said. "I knew I had to be comfortable at the mile mark."
Because she was able to pace herself, McFeely moved from approximately 70th at the two-mile mark to her 43rd-place finish.
Teammate Amy Gravitt also ended her season with a personal best as she ran to 78th place in 18:45.
The team's times were exceptionally surprising considering the number of runners participating in the race. With around 300 runners, the first half of the race is always congested as runners fight to move up closer to the front
"It's always a struggle when there are that many people, and it makes the race tougher," head coach Mike Forbes said.
Although it requires a greater effort with more runners, McFeely felt this competition is what helped the team.
"There is someone to go after all the time," McFeely said. "Our team made a pact to pass two people in the last mile, and that helped out a lot because we were able to move up several places."
This pact also helped the team to lower its average time to the second best ever in the past decade since running on the course.
Another fact which makes the Blue Devils' finish so impressive is the greater level of competition in the district this year. Five other ACC teams -- N.C. State, Clemson, Virginia, North Carolina and Wake Forest -- finished in the top seven, and N.C. State won the meet and will now advance to the NCAA championships.
For captain Kris Bucher, the race had special meaning because she knew it would be her last collegiate cross country meet.
Although there is the possibility that Bucher may have a stress fracture, she still decided to run.
"Knowing this was my last meet, I really wanted to go ahead and compete and finish the season on a strong note," Bucher said. "I would think about it during the race and become mentally involved and focused."
"I'm really proud of the way they ran," Forbes said. " The entire team had two weeks of stressful academic college life [between the ACC and District III meets], yet they still gave every ounce of energy to the race."
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