The men's cross country team had its highest finish in nearly two decades as the Blue Devils raced to a fourth place finish at the Atlantic Coast Conference meet at College Park, Md.
The Blue Devils totaled 114 points to finish behind N.C.State, Wake Forest, and UNC, which was the lowest finish for a Duke team since 1977.
"It was a very competitive meet-one of the most competitive we have seen in years," assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said. "There were 23 runners who finished under 25:00, which is almost unheard of on a course with that degree of difficulty."
The Blue Devils had three runners finish under 25:00, led by sophomore Tom Becker, who placed 10th in 24:37. His finish earned him All-ACC honors, Duke's first individual to garner such honors since 1982.
"It was a difficult course yet Tom ran within two seconds of what he ran at Notre Dame, which was a flat course," Ogilvie said. "He upheld every bit of his part of the bargain in terms of what the team had to do."
"It was definitely a harder course than Notre Dame, but running at ACCs is no different than any other meet," Becker said. "Being named to the All-ACC team was just a bonus."
Another member of the team who had an impressive race was freshman Charlie Kelly, who finished 14th in 24:45. Kelly was the second fastest freshman at the meet, only 15 seconds behind Abdul Alzindani from N.C. State, who was the top high school runner in the nation last year when he won the Foot Locker National Championships.
"I felt really good about the race," Kelly said. "I didn't want to get caught up in the rush of the race and was able to keep up my pace for the entire five miles.
Kelly has seemingly had no problem making the adjustment to the longer five-mile distance of college races, and he feels that he is more confident running the longer distances.
Senior Matt Haywood was third for the Blue Devils, placing 21st in 24:52. Duke's final two scorers were within a second of each other, with senior Darin Mellinger coming in a step ahead of teammate Mike Park in 34th place in 25:18. Park's time of 25:19 was 43 seconds faster than the time he ran just three weeks ago on the same course at a Duke B-team meet.
Freshman Tim Schaefer (25:24) and senior Brett Marcus (25:39) rounded out the top seven for the Blue Devils.
Although the team had wanted to beat UNC at the meet, the coaches are confident about Duke's chances of finishing in front of the Tar Heels at the NCAA District meet in two weeks.
"Carolina had a better balance than we did [at the ACC meet]," head coach Al Buehler said. "It was a fast-paced race all the way through, but our runners do better in the 10K."
In contrast to the ACC meet, the District meet is ten kilometers, 1.2 miles longer than most of the team's races, which should be to the Blue Devils' advantage.
"It was a close battle throughout [with UNC], but we made up a lot of ground in the last mile," Ogilvie said. "In the 10K, we might be able to take them."
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