The men's and women's cross country teams opened up their seasons in a relatively laid-back setting this weekend, as both Blue Devil teams cruised to first place finishes at the UNC Pembroke Invitational in Pembroke, N.C.
Both Duke squads asserted their dominance, posting 'shutouts'-placing the top five finishers.
"Our team looked real good and we got off to what I consider a real good start," men's associate head coach Norm Ogilvie said. "But there was not a lot of competition at this meet. There was only other Division I school there, that being North Carolina A&T."
The other seven schools competing were all local Division II and III schools.
Leading the way for the men was junior Tom Becker who captured the top spot overall by running the four mile course in 19:58.
"Tom's race was very encouraging," Ogilvie said. "He broke away from the field at the two-mile mark. It was a very nice run for him and it should give him a lot of confidence for the rest of the season."
A trio of freshmen filled three out of the next four places for the Blue Devils, as Brenda Fitzgibbon (20:22), Terry Brennan (20:32) and Mike McKeever (20:37) finished second, fourth and fifth respectively.
"We had three freshmen running two-four-five for us," Ogilvie said. "They're going to be the future of Duke cross country, and it's great to see them step up in their very first meet."
Duke's third place finishers was its lone senior, Mike Park. Ogilvie noted that the 20:26 time posted by Park was far ahead of his progress at this point of the season than any of his previous three.
The Blue Devils traditionally like to begin with the Pembroke meet because the four mile distance gives their freshmen runners a chance to slowly adjust to the longer course in college. In high school, cross country courses generally run about 5,000 meters. The Pembroke distance is a nice stepping stone to next weekend's dual meet against Yale, where the course is 4 3/4 miles. Finally Duke will move the traditional five-mile course with its third meet.
"Next week at home against Yale is going to be much more telling about where we are," Ogilvie concluded. "Not to be at all disrespectful of the other teams, but this was pretty much a time trial for us."
On the women's side, High Point's Sara Day actually finished first on the three-mile course, but the next 12 spots were all filled by Blue Devils.
Duke's top finisher was freshman Megan Sullivan who turned in an impressive 17:59 showing.
"Megan came out and established herself on our first 3,000 meter track run and she came back this weekend and showed that it wasn't a fluke," said women's head coach Jan Samuelson Ogilvie.
Senior Erin Fleming is expected to be Duke's top runner this year, but finished 19 seconds behind Sullivan, in fourth place overall
"Erin ran a very good race," Samuelson Ogilvie said. "She has high expectations for herself, as do we. She had the lead for a good portion of the race, but I think she would have liked to finish it out on top."
In addition to Sullivan, two other Duke runners were running their first collegiate races. Senior Colette Gurtler finished just six seconds behind Fleming in fifth place, while freshman Beth O'Donnel finished in 18:27, establishing herself as the Blue Devils' No. 5 runner.
"Overall, It was a wonderful surprise to see Duke runners all the way 2-13, but we did not have a lot of competition and really it won't be until next week that we'll be tested," Samuelson Ogilvie said, mirroring her husbands views on the men's team.
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