Though Duke's cross-country teams sent their B teams to the Maryland Invitational this weekend, the runners turned in some grade A performances at College Park. The Duke women's third place finish and Robert McWaters's 26-minute romp through the five-mile course highlighted the meet's action for Duke in an otherwise all-Virginia weekend.
Though Maryland hosted the meet, Virginia owned the meet, capturing first place in both the men's and women's divisions. The Cavaliers placed four runners in the men's top 10 and five in the women's top 10 en route to their lopsided wins.
The sophomore-dominated women's B team placed four runners in the top 20 and finished in third place with 88 points, well ahead of Maryland's A team. Its finish was higher than even its most ardent supporters, the runners themselves, expected.
"Actually it was a bit surprising," sophomore Kourtney Gallo said. "I think it was a lot of motivation on our own part. I feel we have a really good chance of doing better than we've ever done, so we're pretty excited."
Sophomore Camille Wilson ran the course in 18:38.44 to finish in ninth place overall, the lone Blue Devil entry in the top ten of either division. Gallo, Becky Price and Kim Voyticky crossed the line within three seconds of each other to finish in 18th, 19th and 20th places, respectively. Liz Kane was the final scorer for Duke as she finished in 19:9.11, good for 23rd place overall.
"Camille had an absolutely fabulous race; she looked better to me in the race than she did in practice the whole year." women's head coach Jan Samuelson Ogilvie said. "She was competitive from the start."
If the names on the women's B team ring familiar, it's because half of the B team roster raced on the A team last year. The strong freshman class of runners necessitated the move of the veterans to the B team.
"We have a couple of good freshmen this year," Samuelson Ogilvie said. "You call it a B-squad, but I think it's too early in the season to determine who's on your A and B squads. It was actually an opportunity for these girls to shine."
Though no Duke male runner placed in the top 10, McWaters's time of 26:11.87 was good enough to finish 12th overall. McWaters's time was more than two minutes and 30 seconds faster than his time at the same course last season.
"Last year, I had a bad race," McWaters said. "I did a lot of training this summer and been having some pretty good workouts this year. I would say that's the biggest difference between this year and last year."
With McWaters's performance, Ogilvie suggested that he may have earned consideration for the A team in the near future.
"It's the best race I've ever seen Robert run here," men's assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said. "He never looked better than he did on Saturday. He's got to feel really good about his performance.
"He's certainly knocking on the door of the top seven right now. He's a good example of a guy sticking with it and benefiting himself with his hard work."
Sophomore Kyle Leonard, the only Blue Devil who also ran in the Yale meet last week, trailed McWaters across the line in 26:35.54, good for 19th place overall. Sophomore Jeff Berkson, freshman Eric McGimpsey and senior Rahul Sharma rounded out Duke's top five, crossing the finish line in 27:1.14, 27:7.52 and 27:14.63 to finish in 30th, 32nd and 33rd overall, respectively.
"We wanted to show that our B team could hold up over the weekend, and I think we put on a good show," Berkson said.
Virginia placed four runners in the top 10 to edge Eastern Kentucky 34-45 to complete a Cavalier sweep of the meet. Duke settled in fifth place with 118, ahead of Maryland's "B", Morgan State and Hagerstown Junior College.
"Some of the guys showed they could be running on the A team," Ogilvie said "The guys on our team may be disappointed, but the coach certainly wasn't.
"We saw Virginia and Maryland's A teams in a competitive situation, we feel we can definitely beat both of those teams come [Atlantic Coast Conference] time."
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