The women's track and field team had a record weekend at the Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Championships held in Greensboro. Not only did the team score the most points ever at an indoor ACC meet, but the distance medley relay team had the highest finish ever for Duke in a running event by finishing third with a new school record time.
The distance medley relay was the highlight of the weekend for the Blue Devils. Sophomore Collette Gurtler started the team off in the 800 meters and led the race for Duke, handing off to sophomore Kim Voyticky in first place with a personal-best leg of 2:17.2. Voyticky received the baton with a three-second lead over the rest of the field, and stayed within the top three during her race as she completed her 400-meter leg with a personal best 59.1 split.
In her first time running the 1,200-meter leg, senior Liz Hanly kept the team in position as she finished her race in 3:42.7, and fellow senior Betsy Keever capped off the relay with another personal best in her 1,600-meter leg with a time of 5:05.5 to finish in third.
"[Everyone] did a good job of fighting and battling," assistant coach Scott Yakola said. "It was exciting to watch and it was good for them to be up [front]. Now they know that they can run up there."
The Blue Devils ended their first day of competition on a high note with the DMR, and ended the final day of the meet no less dramatically. The 4x400-meter relay had the highest finish ever in the 4x400 at the ACC Championships by placing fifth in a time of 3:58.28, also a new school record. Sophomore Kim Hay led off the team with her 59.2 split and handed off to freshman Stephanie Thomas, who had the team's fastest split in 59.0. Sophomore Kim Voyticky ran a 59.2, and was followed up by junior Kirsten Johnson's split of 60.4.
Hay, Thomas and Voyticky all had personal-best splits in the event, and Johnson was able to hold off a late charge from a Maryland runner to secure the team's fifth-place spot.
"I'm really proud of the fact of how [Johnson] handled the charge from the Maryland girl and didn't give up the position she was in," Yakola said.
In addition to the two relays, Duke was able to score in three other events-the high jump, 3,000-meters and 5,000-meters. For the second year in a row, sophomore Jamila Forte was able to score in the high jump, as she placed eighth in the event with her jump of 5-3.75. Sophomore Erin Fleming ran a personal best time of 18:04.46 in the 5,000 to place eighth as well.
In the 3,000-meters, Keever ran in the unseeded heat of the event because she has not raced this distance in a meet this season, but she had a strong finish to win her heat by nearly 30 seconds in 10:27.95. In the seeded section of the event that afternoon, only seven people ran faster than Keever's time, so she was able to score a point for the team by finishing eighth overall.
Duke finished in eighth place at the meet, totaling 12.5 points. Carolina ran away with the title by amassing 192 points. But for the first time in several years, the Blue Devils were able to compete with their conference counterparts.
"We were in what was happening," Yakola said. "We vowed a year before that we wanted to do better, and I was pleased with the effort extended by everybody. This has set us up well for our final indoor meet and the outdoor season."
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