The men's track and field team opened its outdoor season with one of its best starts ever, competing in the Florida State Relays in Tallahassee.
The highlights for the Blue Devils were the performances of two distance relay teams. Freshman Kyle Leonard, junior Jeremy Walker, freshman Brian McCulley and sophomore Jesse Allen combined to run a 7:34.44 to win the 4x800-meter relay. The Blue Devils led from the start and never relinquished their lead-second-place Tennessee finished a full 10 seconds behind. The team qualified for the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) outdoor meet at the end of May, running 11 seconds under the qualifying time. Additionally, the time was the third best in school history, only three-tenths of a second from the second-best time. McCulley had the fastest split for the team, running a 1:51.4 third leg.
The Blue Devils also won the 4x1,500-meter relay. Seniors Danny Schuman and Darin Mellinger, sophomore Tom Becker and junior Mike Park combined to run a 15:56.2 to beat second-place LSU, which finished in 16:00. After going into the anchor leg in second place, Park ran a 3:54.8 to win the race for the Blue Devils. Although Park has started his anchor leg in the lead in every race prior to the Florida State Relays, he showed that he can still run well to come from behind when called upon to do so.
"We have won relays before at Florida State, but what made a difference this year was that we won two relays with eight different people," Ogilvie said. "Instead of four guys running twice, we had eight guys, which shows our depth."
In individual events, Park won the 1,500 meters in 3:54.28, McCulley was second in 3:54.82 and Schuman was fourth in 3:58.24. The pace was fairly slow until Park and McCulley pulled away from the pack in the final 400 meters, both running 59-second quarters.
"They both had a really good kick, and were running under four-minute mile pace at the end," Ogilvie said.
In the 800 meters, the Blue Devils swept third through sixth places. Walker was first for the Blue Devils in 1:55.39, Leonard was fourth overall in 1:55.83, freshman James Vasak was fifth in 1:56.59 and freshman Matt Diglio was right behind in 1:56.76. Allen won the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 52.74, an IC4A qualifying time.
"[Allen's time] was faster than last year, and it was raining, so it was an especially good performance," Ogilvie said.
On the field, Jamie Rodriguez, the school record holder in the javelin, threw for the first time since his freshman year after sitting out all of last year with an elbow injury. On his first throw, Rodriguez threw the javelin 198-3, the second-best in school history, behind his own mark of 216-6. The throw qualified him for the IC4A meet and held up for fifth place in a competitive field. Also in the throwing events, senior Rob Bethea threw 135 feet in the discus, his personal best.
Duke also sent two athletes to the Wake Forest Invitational in Winston-Salem. Junior Rob West placed second in the decathlon with 6,122 points, and freshman Pat Ratz, in his first decathlon ever, placed fifth overall out of 11 competitors.
"This was our best opener in a long time," assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said. "We showed that we're ready to compete with some of the best teams in the country."
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