Being at home definitely has its advantages. In front of a home crowd in Wallace Wade Stadium this weekend, the women's track and field team had its best meet of the season at the Duke Invitational.
"Being at your home track has a huge advantage," assistant coach Scott Yakola said. "There's nothing like running at home."
The meet started off on a positive note Friday afternoon when sophomore Kirsten Johnson ran a 65.08 in the 400-meter hurdles, a personal best. It was only the first of 23 personal bests for the Blue Devils during the weekend meet.
In the distance medley relay, junior Betsy Keever took a commanding lead in her 1,200-meter split, running a 3:34.4, her second-fastest split ever. Keever handed off to freshman Kim Hay in first place, and Hay then held the lead with her personal best time of 58.0 400-meter split. Freshman Collette Gurtler continued the trend, running her best-ever time in the 800 meters with a 2:17.3.
Gurtler was a close third at the hand-off to junior Liz Hanly. Hanly ran in a pack with two other runners for most of her 1,600-meter split, but in the final stretch, Hanly managed a kick to finish in 5:08.1--third overall in the event. The team's time of 11:58.36 was the second-fastest distance medley relay time in school history.
Later Friday evening, freshman Erin Fleming ran a personal best 18:17.42 in the 5,000 meters, nearly 30 seconds better than her previous best.
"It's rewarding to see them run so well at home," head coach Mike Forbes said. "It makes all the work worthwhile."
Saturday, with an estimated 3,000 spectators on hand, the team continued to set new personal bests in almost every event. On the field, freshman Jamila Forte tied the freshman record with her personal best jump of 5-4.25 in the high jump to place ninth. In the throwing events, junior Megan Mitchell had a new best throw of 114-10 in the discus, and had her second-best throw in the shot put with her 39-4 mark.
In the 1,500 meters, Faraguna ran a 4:45.64, her best time in the event, to place second in her heat. In the following heat, Hanly ran her second-fastest time as she posted a 4:43.09, and freshman Claire Butler ran a personal best 4:45.37. It was Keever, however, who paced the team with her time of 4:39.99, tying her best performance.
"To say she's back [in shape after studying abroad last semester] would be an understatement," Yakola said.
In the 3,000 meters, senior Robin Schretter finished one second behind the Atlantic Coast Conference indoor 5,000-meter champion, Susanna Matsen of UNC, with her time of 10:01.32, good for sixth place.
In the final race of the meet, the 4x400-meter relay team of Hay, Keever, Johnson and freshman Kim Voyticky clocked a 3:59.15, the second fastest time in the event since the school record of 3:56.65 was set in 1988. Voyticky led the team with her anchor-leg performance, a personal best 57.6.
Senior co-captain Beth Gadkowski, after running a personal best 2:19.52 in the 800 meters earlier in the day, was scheduled to run Johnson's leg in the event. After realizing she was not ready to run the race, Gadkowski asked the coaches to put Johnson in her place.
"Beth had confidence in her teammate and showed what being a leader is all about," Yakola said.
Yakola and Forbes could not play integral roles in coaching the Duke athletes, because the two coaches were also partly responsible for running the meet. Their limited attention to the team, however, did not seem to affect the Blue Devils. Duke finished the meet with 60 to 70 percent of the team achieving personal bests, according to Forbes.
"They responded by coming out and running their best," Forbes said. "This team has the greatest work ethic, and it showed on the track this weekend."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.