Although the men's track team was not responsible for any of the 14 meet records which were broken at the Duke Invitational this weekend, the Blue Devils won second place in two events and had many personal best performances.
Duke claimed both of its second place finishes on Friday night. Freshman Jamie Rodriguez built upon his recent success in the javelin, throwing 210-6 in his third competition as a Blue Devil.
"In his three college meets, Jamie has two seconds and a meet record [last week at the Lynchburg Invitational]," said assistant coach Norm Ogilvie. "He has competed against about 100 javelin throwers and has beaten about 98 of them."
But the highlight of the evening for the Blue Devils came about an hour before Rodriguez's throw. Led by junior Miles Hall, the Duke distance medley relay team staged a huge comeback to finish less than one second behind St. Augustine's, which set a new Duke Invitational record.
Senior Pat Kelly led off the race with a 2:59.1 performance in the 1,200 meter leg of the race. Kelly, who had never previously broken the three-minute mark, was in first place after two laps and handed off the baton less than one second behind the race leader.
"I was inspired every time I came around the corner--there were a lot of Duke fans," Kelly said. "I knew I wanted to be around 1:58 for the half, so that was good."
Freshman Mark Simmons took the baton near the lead, but almost immediately fell behind, as he appeared to limp early in his 400-meter leg of the race. Simmons pulled his hamstring near the start of his run, but he was able to fight through the pain to complete his quarter-mile in 54.9 seconds.
"It was gutsy for Mark to continue the whole way," Kelly said. "He ran 54 [seconds]. I guess on one leg, hobbling around, that's pretty good."
But despite Simmons' effort, the Blue Devils were in fourth place, 70 meters out of the lead. To compensate for this deficit, junior Doug Kling got off to a faster start than usual in the 800-meter portion of the race. Kling ran his first lap in 54 seconds and finished his leg in 1:52.9. Going into the last mile of the race, Duke was 50 meters behind the top three teams, Pittsburgh, St. Augustine's and the Westchester Track Club.
Although those three teams appeared to have insurmountable leads, Hall was not yet ready to accept defeat. He cut into the lead in his first two laps and still felt strong going into the final half-mile of the race.
"After the 800, I felt like if I kept on working, I could get up [to the pack of leaders] by the end," Hall said.
Hall continued to gain on the top three teams in the next two laps, and he made one final surge on the final curve, about 100 meters from the finish line. Hall moved into second place, and nearly caught St. Augustine's Joe King at the end. Hall ran the mile in a personal-best time of 4:04.5.
"This race certainly puts me in a different category," Hall said.
"We've all known that Miles is a great runner, but this was definitely a surprise," Ogilvie said. "He timed his kick perfectly, and he almost walked down Joe King."
Then on Saturday, Hall used an unorthodox strategy to run another personal-best time of 3:49.81 in the 1,500 meters. The runners in the fast heat of the race ran the first lap in an unusually slow 63 seconds--they were apparently in the midst of a tactical race, rather than a fast one.
Hall, however, decided to pick up the pace, and he took a 10-meter lead over the rest of the runners from the start of the second lap until the middle of the third lap.
"I wanted a fast race," Hall said. "I didn't want to just sit back. I guess the other guys were just going for a win, and didn't want to go particularly fast. I knew if I didn't do something, it was just going to be sit and kick, which would be no good for me."
Hall's aggressiveness caught up with him, however, as several other runners moved ahead of him in the next 300 meters--even though Hall ran at a faster pace in the final 700 meters than he did in the first half-mile. Despite a solid kick, Hall finished eighth in the race.
"It was tough to get out to the lead because it was windy and no one was really helping me," Hall said. "That's not my usual style, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I got a [personal record], but I can't be happy with where I finished."
Kelly was 17th with a personal-best time of 3:52.34 in the 1,500. Like Hall, Kelly was not helped by the slow pace early in the race. In fact, for a while, he was in second place, behind his teammate.
In earlier heats of the 1,500 meters, junior Joe Crespo (3:59) and sophomores Shane Shepherd (4:06) and Danny Schuman (4:03) ran personal best times.
Kling competed in the top heat of the 800 meters--probably the toughest heat of any in the meet--on Saturday afternoon. Kling ran 1:52.45 to place 16th behind a fleet of runners sponsored by the likes of Reebok and Nike.
Freshman Mike Park ran 1:53.92 in the 800, and sophomore Jason Manse ran 1:56.3 to capture his heat. Both were personal-best times in the event.
Duke's 4x100-meter relay team of senior Michael Coles, sophomores Charles London and Johannes Brugger and redshirt freshman Corey Thomas ran together for the first time in a meet. The squad qualified for the Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association of America (IC4A) meet with its 42.59 finish. Brugger, London and Thomas are also members of the football team.
"They looked good for their first time with a baton around the track," Ogilvie said. "The football players were smiling after the race, which is a good thing to see."
Coles came back to run a 50-second anchor leg in the 4x400 meter relay later Saturday afternoon.
Sophomore Brett "Bulldog" Marcus and junior Shawn Hynes added two more personal records to Duke's total for the weekend. Marcus ran 15:18 in the 5,000 meters, and Hynes finished the race in 15:40.
Freshman Rob West did well in all four of the events he competed in at the meet: the 400 meters, the 110-meter hurdles, the javelin (in which he threw 166 feet, good for 13th-place) and the high jump. West hopes to participate in the decathlon at the Atlantic Coast Conference meet later this month.
The success of Rodriguez, Coles, West and the 4x400 squad indicates the remarkable progress which the Blue Devils have made this season. At the start of the year, Duke was viewed by most track experts as a one-dimensional team, which was talented only in middle-distance races. But this weekend, the Blue Devils proved they actually have substantial depth.
And the men's track team also found out that it has some fans. The Duke Invitational drew 3,000 fans to Wallace Wade Stadium, many of whom were partisan Duke supporters.
"It was definitely the most successful meet we have ever run at Duke," Ogilvie said.
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