The women's cross country team wasn't interested in having a suspenseful conclusion to its double dual meet against Yale and Virginia Tech on Saturday. In fact, by the time the first non-Duke runner crossed the finish line, the Blue Devils had clinched a pair of victories.
Duke defeated Yale 21-35, and then edged the Hokies by a 25-32 margin on Duke's cross country course. The wins were keyed by a sweep of the top three spots by freshman Kim Folk, junior Raquel Salume and freshman Kim Reynolds.
Folk took the lead about halfway through the five-kilometer course and was able to pull away from the pack to win the race in 18:54. It was the third-fastest time on the course by a Duke runner.
"I wasn't at all expecting to win, but I felt good, so I just went with it," Folk said. "It was pretty hard at the end because there was no one right next to me, and there's a hill towards the end, but I tried to push it on my own."
For most of the race, though, Salume was close behind Folk. Salume, who is the most experienced runner on a team with no seniors, finished second in 19:12.
Reynolds finished just two seconds behind Salume to take third place and complete Duke's 1-2-3 sweep. She made her big move relatively late in the race.
"Kim [Reynolds] likes running on hills and trails so this course was to her strengths," head coach Forbes said. "At two miles, she was behind Erin [Fleming], and she moved up and just got stronger as the race moved on."
The Blue Devils came into the race looking to be competitive with their opponents rather than striving for specific times. Consequently, Duke was pleased with the way it ran on Saturday.
"I'm really thrilled with everybody's effort," Forbes said. "Before the race, I offered them a challenge to go out there and race. I think they really went out and did that."
Although Folk, Salume, Reynolds and Fleming ran within 40 seconds of one another, Duke's fifth finisher, freshman Helen Boussious was 20th in the meet, crossing the line in 20:51. Junior Kathy Lockwood (21:05) and sophomore Megan Pash (21:09) were right behind Boussious, placing 22nd and 23rd, respectively.
While the gap between the fourth and fifth runners didn't hurt the Blue Devils' effort on Saturday, it is important for cross country teams to pack their top five runners relatively close together in meets with more teams. The Blue Devils are not concerned about this, though, because sophomore Kristin Faraguna was injured and did not run on Saturday.
"It's a concern, but I know that Kristin is getting healthier every day," Forbes said. "I know that if we keep her in the pool and biking that she's going to be running with those four by the end of the year. So if she gets healthier, we're in real good shape up front."
Duke was particularly happy about beating Virginia Tech since the Hokies have run well so far this season. Prior to Saturday's meet, Virginia Tech had already defeated several solid teams, including Clemson.
The Blue Devils felt that running at home, on one of the toughest courses on which they compete, was beneficial.
"This course is good to have as a home course because there are a lot of twists and turns, so you can run the tangents to the curves," Folk said. "There are some downhills that you can use to your advantage--just kind of let go and run."
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