The women's track and field team traveled to Atlanta, Ga., on Saturday, hoping to set the pace for the rest of its season. After finishing fifth out of 34 teams and having 11 different personal records broken, Duke is ready to continue its improvement through the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
"We've traditionally run well in Atlanta and that has been a precursor to running well in the Duke Invitational," said Scott Yakola, the assistant women's track coach. "And from there we continue to perform well right through the ACC championship."
The meet was a success on all levels for Duke as athletes from short, middle and long distances all placed in events, as did many of the competitors in the field events. In addition, several freshmen and sophomores stepped up, giving Duke a great deal of depth in many events.
The highest finish of the day belonged to senior Robin Schretter who set a personal record in the 5,000-meter run. Her time of 17:45.36 shaved 12 seconds of her previous best and was good enough for second place in the meet.
The long distance crew had many other successes as Liz Hanly moved up from her customary half-mile distance to place third in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:27.92.
"The improvements in [the distance runners] are all because of our workouts," Schretter said. "Our hard work is finally starting to show in our races."
Duke's most productive event was the 1,500-meter run, in which three different individuals had personal records and two runners placed. Betsy Keever led the Blue Devil pack with a third-place finish and a time of 4:41.91. Claire Butler had a personal record with her sixth-place finish of 4:49.95. Teammates Kristin Faraguna and Jennifer Bischoff finished closely behind Butler to all set personal bests.
The team was equally impressive in the field events as the Blue Devils placed in the triple jump, shot put and discus while recording four new personal records. Megan Mitchell led the way by placing fifth in the discus and third in the shot put.
"Megan has been working really hard during the year," freshman teammate Kim Voyticky said. "It's been paying off a lot--she's really come around in the discus lately."
Jenny Stadler also helped out Duke by placing sixth in the triple jump, despite not having competed in the event since high school.
Voyticky was not able to place in the field events, but she did set personal bests in both the long jump and javelin. But her most impressive performance came in the 4x400 meter relay. Duke was in fourth place when Voyticky received the baton for the anchor leg. She clocked a 59-second final quarter to push the Blue Devils into third place for the race.
"I was kind of nervous because this was the first time I had run the anchor leg," Voyticky said. "I was really excited about living up to the challenge."
The third-place points were a great help in allowing Duke to maintain its lead over Vanderbilt for fifth place in the team standings.
"We're very pleased with the team results," Yakola said. "We beat Vanderbilt, which is a Division I school that hands out scholarships."
The teams that beat Duke are all top teams in their respective conferences or divisions. This type of performance is sure to give the Blue Devils a boost when they return home next week for the Duke Invitational in Wallace Wade Stadium.
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