Strong performances by its top five runners allowed the women's cross country team to have its highest finish ever at the North Carolina State Championships this past weekend at McAlpine Park in Charlotte.
The team finished in second place in a field of 17 teams attending with 85 points. North Carolina totaled 31 points to run away with the meet. Duke was led by junior Raquel Salume who finished in seventh place overall in a time of 18:25.9. Freshman Kim Folk was right on her heels in eighth place, less than a second behind in 18:26.3.
Sophomore Erin Fleming came across the line in 12th place with a time of 18:37. Salume and Folk were in 5th and 6th places, respectively, throughout the race until the final 100 meters, and Fleming was in the top 10 all the way until the end.
The Blue Devils' fourth runner was sophomore Kristin Faraguna, competing in her first race of the season due to a knee injury. Faraguna managed to finish in 28th place overall in 19:24 despite experiencing heat exhaustion from the humidity and over 80-degree weather. Fortunately, Faraguna did not feel any additional pain in her knee.
"Kristin is the type of kid who will give you everything," head coach Mike Forbes said. "There is no doubt she can run up with the top three by the end of the year."
Freshman Kim Reynolds was Duke's final scorer, finishing in 32nd place overall in 19:34. Sophomore Megan Pash (58th in 20:32), freshman Helen Boussios (62nd in 20:39), and freshman Susan Williams (65th in 20:44) rounded out Duke's top eight.
"Our goal was to run as close to UNC [the defending conference champions] as we could," Forbes said. "Everyone put out 100 percent. Kim Folk had blisters on her feet and Kristin couldn't get off the ground until 20 minutes after the race."
One key to the team's high finish in the meet was the fact that the top three runners were only 12 seconds apart. The fourth and fifth runners should move up with these three later in the season, and according to Forbes, the team's newest goal is to only have 15 seconds separating the top five runners from one another.
"The presence of Kristin makes us that much better as a team," Forbes said. "We were a top-20 team in the South before, but now I feel we can be a top-10 team."
The meet had two fellow Atlantic Coast Conference foes conspicuously absent--N.C. State, currently ranked 17th in the nation, and Wake Forest, 14th in the nation. Both teams were running at other meets. But Duke will face both of these teams, as well as Virginia and Georgia Tech--who will soon be nationally ranked--at the conference meet on October 28th, the team's next meet.
"We could finish sixth in the conference despite a great effort because we're in a very tough conference," Forbes said.
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