For the past six years, the men's cross country team has opened its season with a victory at the Pembroke Invitational. But no team, including any of the past five Blue Devils squads, in the meet's 20-year history had ever dominated the race as thoroughly as Duke did on Saturday.
The Blue Devils won the meet with 18 points, and eight Duke runners were among the top-10 finishers in the race.
Junior Darin Mellinger won the meet in 20:24, a four-second improvement over his previous best time on the flat, four-mile course in Pembroke. It was Mellinger's first collegiate victory.
"It was a huge win for Darin," assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said. "There is a huge difference between taking second and winning. It was a big step for him to take."
Actually, Mellinger believes that his time could have been significantly better had he not been running alone for the most of the race.
"I only had someone with me for the first mile," Mellinger said. "From then on, I was by myself. It's really easy to lose your focus and daydream when you're running alone. You run faster when there's someone out there to push you."
Duke dominated the other five NCAA Division I schools in the meet. The Citadel was second with 51 points, and East Carolina finished third with 81.
After Mellinger, four of Duke's next five finishers were freshmen. Tom Becker was second in the meet, completing the race in 20:33. Becker edged out Jamie Cawood, a runner from The Citadel, who was the only non-Blue Devil among the top eight runners.
Freshmen Colin Young (20:41), Scott Antoun (20:51) and Brandon Busteed (20:59) were fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively. Becker, Young, Antoun and Busteed were all running in their first meets as Blue Devils.
"The real difference with this year's team is that these freshmen are used to winning," Ogilvie said. "We have a talented group of recruits who are used to doing well."
The only upperclassman to break up the string of freshmen was senior captain Pat Neville, who was sixth. Neville, who was Duke's top runner at Pembroke last season, completed the race in 20:58.
"Pat Neville did a good job of being a team leader," Ogilvie said. "He's trying to become a more consistent runner.
"This weekend, he played the team role well. He shepherded the freshmen along. At one point, he told Tom Becker that it was time for him to make a move."
Junior Danny Schuman was ninth in 21:00, and sophomore Mike Park placed 10th in 21:07.
The Blue Devils' next meet is their only home race of the season, a Sept. 23 race against Yale. Duke's runners realize that this will be a much stiffer challenge than they faced at Pembroke.
"We need to continue to improve," Ogilvie said. "We'd like to have more [freshmen] running with Tom Becker."
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