The men's cross country team gave its top seven runners the weekend off, but the Blue Devil "B" squad used the weekend to build on its racing experience as several runners traveled to College Park, Md., for the Maryland Invitational. Duke had a strong showing, finishing second to Maryland's 25 points with a 45-point total.
Junior Mike Park was the top runner for the Blue Devils, finishing sixth overall in 26:02. Park was also the third collegian in the race since the top three runners at the meet were independent runners. Pete Sherry, who runs for the Reebok Enclave, won in a time of 25:07.
The race was Park's best performance since the Division III meet last year, after which he injured himself and was unable to train at the same level for several months.
"I tried to remember how my mental approach was this time last year," Park said. "There are points in the race where it is easy to give up and let the race go by, but that's the point where you need to go. At the three-mile mark was when I started pushing it and kept going."
Park was within 10 seconds of the top two collegiate runners, both from Maryland, but was unable to catch them at the end.
"You have to focus on the people ahead of you, instead of those behind you, and I caught a couple of guys in the end," Park said. "After the race, though, I realized I should've been up with [the Maryland runners] the whole time."
One reason for Park's success is the fact that he stayed in Durham this past summer and worked on his flexibility and strength in order to prevent further injury.
"[The summer training] has made a big difference," Park said. "Last season it was a matter of too much, too soon, but this season I have been able to run more mileage."
The coaches agree that the strength workouts have definitely worked to Park's advantage this season.
"He has steadily gotten a lot stronger and has worked over the last few months to be free of his knee injury," assistant coach Jan Ogilvie said. "He looked like he was running a mile on the track for the last mile of the race instead of on rolling hills-he looked very fluid."
But Park was not the only Blue Devil to run well at the meet. Freshman Brian McCulley was second for Duke and 11th overall in a time of 26:23, and seniors Danny Schuman (26:25) and Chris Malfant (26:30) were right behind in 12th and 13th place. Sophomore Colin Young rounded out the scoring by placing 18th in 26:53.
"As a team, we really started out well," Ogilvie said. "As the season progresses we'll learn how to run the middle part of a race better-that's where we fell apart a little bit in the meet."
In addition to giving the Blue Devils more racing experience, it was also a chance for Duke to scout out the course, which will be the site for the Atlantic Coast Conference meet later this season.
Note: After last week's performance at Notre Dame, the Blue Devils received two votes in a national rankings poll by the U.S. Cross Country Coaches Association, technically ranking them 31st in the nation.
"It is an honor to be considered for a national ranking," assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said. "Running well at the State meet [next weekend] and the ACC meet could put us in the top 25."
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