WINSTON-SALEM--The women's cross country team earned its lowest point total ever at an Atlantic Coast Conference championship Saturday to place seventh out of nine teams.
"That was definitely our hardest meet, competition-wise," Kim Folk said. "We were running against several nationally-ranked teams."
"I'm happy with the team's response," head coach Mike Forbes said. "This was the first meet of the year where we faced this kind of high-caliber competition."
The Blue Devils finished with a total score of 153 points, well ahead of Maryland and Florida State, who placed eighth and ninth, respectively. They were also within striking distance of the fifth- and sixth-place teams, Georgia Tech (128 points) and Clemson (135 points). N.C. State easily won the meet with 40 points.
"The goal is not to compare Duke to other teams [that offer cross country and track scholarships], but to compare our team to past Duke teams," Forbes said. "This team has set history and become the best Duke team ever."
The top runner for the team was Folk, who came in 22nd place in a time of 18:42.9, the fifth fastest freshman at the meet. This finish placed Folk on the list of top three finishes ever by a Duke runner at the ACC meet.
"Kim Folk had a great race to come in as a freshman and do this well," Forbes said. "She will only get stronger as time goes on."
Duke's next finisher was sophomore Erin Fleming who was only seven seconds behind Folk in 18:49.6, good for 24th place. This was 20 places higher than she had finished at the conference meet just a year earlier.
"We [the top five runners] have all been running together at practice, and on any one day, anyone can come in first," Fleming said.
Junior Raquel Salume was third for the team, coming in at 18:56.3 for 27th place. Sophomore Kristin Faraguna was Duke's next finisher, completing the course in 19:30.6, ranking 36th overall. Freshman Kim Reynolds rounded out the team by placing 46th in 19:58.8.
One factor affecting the race were the course conditions. Although the weather on the morning of the race seemed ideal, Winston-Salem had been hit with two inches of rain the night before, leaving the course extremely muddy.
"Because it rained so hard the night before, the course was muddy and slippery," Folk said. "But if it's like that for you, than it's muddy and slippery for everyone else too."
Since everyone faced these same conditions, the mud had little effect on the team achieving its goals--in addition to having a low point total, the Blue Devils had also wanted to place higher in the conference.
"One of our goals was to beat Clemson, but that still remains a goal," Forbes said. "We should be able to do that at [the district meet]."
If each Duke runner had only run five seconds faster each, the Blue Devils would have beaten Clemson, but this now gives them something to strive for at the District III meet on Nov. 11.
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