Despite his team having a lackluster season on the gridiron, freshman football player Lamar Grant is now contributing to a more successful campaign as a member of the track and field team.
Grant was named co-athlete of the Covert Classic at Lehigh, Pa., after winning the long jump with a leap of 23-6.75 feet and placing second in both the 55- and 200-meter dashes in respective times of 6.1 and 22.4 seconds as he led the Duke team to a decisive victory in the meet. Grant was second to David Bobb of Maryland-Baltimore County-one of the top collegiate sprinters on the East Coast-who just nipped him in both events. The times and places were impressive considering Bobb was a finalist in both dashes last year at the Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association of America (IC4A) meet.
Additionally, Grant set a new indoor school record in the long jump, as well as a personal best in the event, despite the fact that it was the first time he had gone down the long jump runway all season, and had only practiced with the team for three days due to his football commitment. His long jump and 55-meter performances qualified him for the IC4A meet.
"He's not in 400 shape yet, but we would like to run him in the 200 and 400 later this season," assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said. "He is capable of national class performances."
But Grant was not the only freshman to step up at the meet. Brian McCulley set a meet record in the mile with his time of 4:19.6 as well as anchoring the two-mile relay team of junior Ben Kratzer, freshman Kyle Leonard and senior Danny Schuman, which ran a meet-record time of 7:59.8. McCulley also became an IC4A qualifier in the 1000 meters when he ran 2:24.05 at the Father Diamond meet in Fairfax, Va. last weekend.
Freshman Matt Diglio contributed to the team with a third-place performance in the 400 meters, and as a member of the mile-relay team of freshman John Eustice, junior Jeremy Walker and sophomore Jesse Allen, which also set a meet record by running a 3:24.8. Allen was second in the 400 meters with his time of 51.2, and is also a IC4A qualifier in the 500 meters after running 1:04.72 last weekend.
The Blue Devils set two more meet records when junior Mike Park won the 800 meters in 1:56.8 and Darrin Mellinger won the 5,000 meters in 15:12.4. The key for Duke was its depth, especially in the distance events. The Blue Devils took first through third places in the 800 meters, 3,000 meters (which sophomore Tom Becker won in 8:43.0 just hours after placing fourth in the mile) and 5,000 meters, and were able to claim first through fourth in the mile. These finishes accounted for 103 of Duke's 183 points.
The Blue Devil point total not only allowed them to easily outdistance second-place Lehigh and East Stroudsburg State, who both finished with 62 points, it also broke the meet point-total record. Of the 16 events at the meet, the Blue Devils were able to score in 14 of them, an indication of a true team effort in their win.
"We were a track and field team, not just a track team," Ogilvie said. "We scored in field events which we haven't done in a while."
The emergence of several talented freshman combined with several strong performances by other Blue Devils in a variety of events at the meet is a good sign for the season to come.
"Meets with team scoring is track and field at its purest," head coach Al Buehler said. "Track and field is a team sport and Duke is a well-rounded team."
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