It was a busy weekend for the Duke track teams, which saw athletes competing in two different states and qualifying for postseason competition.
The men's team sent its distance medley relay squad to Boston University for the Valentine's Classic on Saturday. The combination of Brian McCulley (1200), Lamar Grant (400), Jesse Allen (800) and Mike Park (1600) won in a time of 9:52.43. It was Duke's fastest mark since 1982, and the best in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season, but narrowly missed qualifying for the NCAA division meet by .43 of a second.
"[Our feelings afterward] were mostly positive," Allen said. "We ran the entire race alone, the next team was about 30 seconds back.... But we're happy with the result and know we can run faster against higher competition."
For the women, the 4x400 relay team of Stephanie Thomas, Kim Voyticky, Kim Hay and Kirsten Johnson set a school record of 3:53.71, breaking the old record by over two seconds. Hay was bothered by an arm injury before the race, but still managed a personal best for her leg.
"I think we were all real happy with [the relay]," Thomas said, adding that the previous week's difficult workouts contributed to the performances. "It helped us mentally. To get through the workouts, we know at the meets it's not going to hurt as much."
Voyticky added another school record of 2:11.64 in the 800, placing her within one second of the provisional qualifying time of 2:10.80 for the NCAA championships. Thomas, running her first-ever open 800 ran a 2:14.85.
Junior Colette Gurtler ran a personal-best 5:06.39 in the mile to finish seventh.
The rest of the Blue Devils traveled to Blacksburg, Va., for Saturday's Virginia Tech Invitational.
Twelve of the 18 entrants on the women's side finished with personal bests, including a school record by Tara Cyre, who ran the 60 in 8.17. In the 3000, Erin Fleming's 10:23 and Kim Folk's 10:34 were good for third and fourth place, respectively.
"This was a good morale builder, after a hard week of training," women's head coach Michael Forbes said. "It was a good opportunity to enhance performance and we responded."
The top finisher for the men was Darin Mellinger, who placed third in the 5000 with a time of 15:02.02. Jeremy Walker was fourth in the 800 with a 1:54.18, while Matt Diglio took fifth in 1:55.48. Tom Becker's 8:28.72 in the 3000 was good for sixth, and freshman football player Richmond Flowers came in ninth in the 60-meter high hurdles in 8.32.
"We've only had [Flowers] in practice for ten days so that was an impressive performance," men's head coach Al Buehler said.
The meet served as an opportunity for several athletes to qualify for future competition. Walker, Becker, and the 4x400 team of Ekan Essien, Mark Simmons, Walker and Diglio all qualified for the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America Indoor Championship, in Cambridge, Ma., on Mar. 1-2.
"I thought we showed good balance," Buehler said. "We had several season's bests, and a near miss to the NCAA. We're still setting our sights on the ACC meet."
Michael King contributed to this story.
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