The women's track and field team faced its toughest competition of the season at the Raleigh Relays held at N.C. State University last weekend, and the Blue Devils responded by boosting their pace.
"Great competition gets an athlete mentally prepared to know they have to do their best," head coach Mike Forbes said. "A lot of kids responded to the challenge."
The 4x800 meter relay team of senior Beth Berghausen, sophomore Betsy Keever, senior Jeanne McFeely, and sophomore Nicola Crabtree broke the school record for the second time this year. The team took fourth place, finishing in 9:15.54.
"Our team continues to improve and I think we can keep breaking the record," Keever said. "Our goal is to be competitive by the [Atlantic Coast Conference] meet."
Although the relay team provided the only runners to place at the meet, there was evidence of the strides this team is making -- a school record in the 4x200 meter relay and six personal best times.
The school record time of 1:48.20 in the 4x200 was set by Kirsten Johnson, Kris Stout, Christine Gregorski, and Liz Lorscheider. The meet marked Duke's final chance to compete in the event this season.
"I was very happy for the 4x200 record because of the two seniors on the team," assistant coach Scott Yakola said. "They really wanted it."
Another athlete who has continued to better her times, throws and jumps is Gregorski. The senior placed fourth in the heptathlon at the Florida Relays in Gainesville last week. Her strong performance included personal bests in five of the seven events. She ran a 17.44 in the 100 meter hurdles, a 26.89 in the 200 meter race, threw the shot 32.25 feet, the javelin 85.75 feet, and jumped 16.17 feet in the long jump.
Despite her outstanding performance, Gregorski was almost 150 points shy of breaking the school record, finishing with 4,011 points. She will have another chance at the mark at the conference championships.
"Christine is already 400 points ahead of where she was last year, so she still has a great chance to break the record," Yakola said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.