ATLANTA - They entered the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships hoping to score 30 points. Instead, the members of the men's track and field team managed to total 39.5 points-the highest Duke point total in two decades-to finish seventh at the weekend meet.
The best event for the Blue Devils was the decathlon, where Duke picked up nine points behind junior Rob West's third-place finish and freshman Pat Ratz's sixth-place performance. West qualified for the IC4A meet with 6,248 points while adding six points to the Duke scoring total. Ratz added three points with his 5,568-point finish.
"Both guys came through really nicely on the second day," Blue Devil assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said.
After Friday's first day of decathlon competition, West was sixth and Ratz was ninth. Saturday, West was second in the hurdles and had a seasonal best in the javelin, while Ratz won the discus and had a personal best in the javelin. Both had bests in the pole vault-Ratz by almost a foot-and both had strong runs in the 1,500 meters to each move up three places.
West, outside of the decathlon, was also a part of the 4x100-meter relay team that finished seventh with a time of 43.57. West had just finished one of his javelin throws when he joined teammates Aaron Brady, Brian Berger and Ekan Essien for the relay, which scored two points for Duke.
In Friday's events, senior Matt Haywood was the highest finisher in a running event when he ran a 9:17.93 to finish fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase behind three North Carolina runners.
In the 10,000 meters, sophomore Tom Becker was fifth with a time of 31:03.74, and senior Darin Mellinger was seventh in 31:25.03. Mellinger led the race in the beginning, while Becker stayed in the middle of the pack before breaking away with the lead group late in the race.
"[Mellinger's strategy] enabled him to get out and be in the position to score," Ogilvie said. "We've rested Tom since the Raleigh Relays, and he was a little more prudent in the beginning."
Also on Friday, four Blue Devils qualified for their respective events the following day. Junior Mike Park was third in the trials of the 1,500 meters with his time of 3:52.68. Senior Danny Schuman did not qualify by virtue of his time, but because he was tripped from behind, the Duke coaches filed a protest,. Schuman was then admitted into the finals of the 1,500 as well.
In the trials of the 800 meters, freshman Brian McCulley had the top qualifying time in 1:51.61, and in the 400-meter hurdles, sophomore Jesse Allen not only had the second-fastest qualifying time, he also ran an NCAA provisional mark with his time of 51.08, just under the qualifying time of 51.3.
In the finals of the 1500 meters on Saturday, Park battled with the top runners to finish fifth in 3:52.05. He was less than two seconds away from first-place finisher David Krummenacker from Georgia Tech, who also won the 800 meters and was named the MVP for the entire meet. Schuman proved he belonged in the finals by running in the front pack until the final 200 meter stretch, eventually falling to 12th place but setting a personal best 3:55.02 in the process.
Running in the 800 meters, McCulley finished fifth with a time of 1:52.25.
"Brian showed that he is someone to reckon with in the future," Ogilvie said. "He had the fastest qualifying time in the trials in a great field. The final went out extremely fast, but the more he does it, the more he'll get used to handling the pace."
In the 400 hurdles, Allen raced against some of the top hurdlers in the nation and was able to finish in fifth place with a time of 51.49. Like he had done the day before, the four runners ahead of Allen ran NCAA provisional times.
"[Allen] closed in on the field in the final 150 meters," assistant coach Jan Ogilvie said. "He is running in the premier hurdling conference, and now Jesse knows he can compete with the top runners in the country."
Although he has provisionally qualified, Allen will likely have to run at least another half-second faster in order to compete in the NCAA meet. Allen will still have several meets left to run the time, and the coaches feel that it is a likely goal for him to achieve.
In the high jump, freshman Andrew Mutschler tied for seventh, jumping 6-6 while adding 1.5 points for Duke.
"When Andrew first came here, we changed his approach, and when you do that, it takes a long time to get out and score," Jan Ogilvie said. "But he looked fantastic-he's the first scorer we've had in the event in the 90's."
Heading into the final event of the meet, the 4x400-meter relay, the Blue Devils knew they would have to beat Virginia in the relay in order to finish ahead of the Cavaliers in the team standings. Essien led off with a 49.1 split and was followed by Allen's 48.1 split. Only hours after the 800, McCulley ran a 49.8 and freshman Matt Diglio proceeded to run the fastest split for a Duke runner in years when he finished in 47.4.
Diglio's finish was likely aided by the fact that Virginia's anchor was running at his side, and when the final results were in, the UVa runner narrowly edged Diglio. However, the Cavalier's first leg had stepped out of his lane, which disqualified the team and moved Duke to fifth place. The four points combined with Virginia's zero points in the event allowed the Blue Devils to edge UVa by 2.5 points in the final standings. In addition, the group's time of 3:14.67 was the third-fastest time in Duke history.
"The ACC meet is where it all happens and for the team to do this well was great," Park said. "It's a way to show other teams how far we've come. In the past, people would count on us being at the bottom of the barrel, but that doesn't happen anymore."
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