A pair of Duke runners dominated a strong field in the mile run at the Father Diamond Invitational in Fairfax, Va., on Saturday.
The stellar performances of junior Miles Hall and senior Pat Kelly in that race were the biggest highlights of the men's track team's first meet of the season at George Mason.
Hall won the college division of the mile in 4:12.69, beating several star runners from Georgetown and Pittsburgh. The only two competitors who had faster times than Hall were former All-Americans Todd Rosenberg and Tom Nohilly. In fact, Nohilly barely missed qualifying for the 1992 United States Olympic track team in the steeplechase.
Hall's performance easily qualified him for the Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association of America (IC4A) meet in Princeton, N.J., in March. This victory may also allow Hall to compete for even greater glory.
"He has a shot at being selected for the college mile at the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden on Friday, Feb. 3," assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said.
Kelly also qualified for the IC4As in the mile with his fourth-place showing. The senior co-captain was the second college finisher in the race, finishing in 4:14.79.
But Hall and Kelly were not the only Blue Devils to return to campus a week early to head up to GMU. Fifteen members of the team participated in the meet and got an early start to practice.
Among these, several freshmen had solid debuts at Duke. Freshman Brad Hisey threw 48-1/2 in the shot put, which is further than the Blue Devils' best athlete threw in that event last year.
"Brad Hisey is probably the best freshman thrower at Duke in a long time," Ogilvie said.
Mark Simmons, another Duke freshman, was second in his heat of the 500-meters in 1:08.73. He also had the fastest split for the Blue Devils 4x400-meter relay squad.
Two other freshmen competed well in the middle distances. Mike Park was seventh in the 1000-meters in 2:34.80, and Ben Kratzer was ninth in the 800-meters in 1:59.70.
Junior Joe Crespo also competed in the 800. After recovering from a fall in the mile less than an hour earlier, Crespo placed seventh in the shorter race with his 1:57.85 showing. This was a personal best time for Crespo at this distance in an open race -- he ran faster in his split of a relay of the Duke Invitational.
"It was a really good time for his first time out this season," Ogilvie said. "After being knocked out earlier, he could have come out shy."
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