Kim Voyticky hardly needed extra motivation.
Heading into the 800-meter finals Saturday at the women's track Atlantic Coast Conference Championships in Orlando, Voyticky wanted desperately to make up for her disappointing performance at last year's ACC meet. On Friday Voyticky had qualified for the finals with a Duke-record time of 2:08.09, but as she prepared to race Saturday for the conference title, the public-address announcer recited the names of the 1997 finalists.
Voyticky's name was not on the list.
After the starting gun sounded in Saturday's race, Voyticky, hoping to avenge her past failure, jumped into the lead for the first 400 meters. Wake Forest's Chrissy Person passed her during the third 200-meter leg, though, and as the race wound into its final stretch, Voyticky looked to the stands for an extra burst of energy.
The encouraging cheers of her teammates spurred on the senior, who began to make her move. But it was the contingent from Wake Forest that gave Voyticky the final push she needed.
"They were all screaming to [Person], 'It's your senior year, it's your year,'" Voyticky said. "I thought, 'No, it's my senior year, it's my year.' It was my last ACC meet, and I wanted it."
Voyticky took it, flying by Person in the final 50 meters to become the first Duke woman to win an ACC track title, with a new school-record time of 2:06.96.
"She ran a brilliant race," Duke coach Jan Samuelson-Ogilvie said of Voyticky. "She's in fabulous shape-her strength just took over."
Voyticky's victory led the Blue Devils to their best-ever finish at an ACC meet. Duke scored 41 points, nearly quadruple its 11-point output from last year.
Nearly as impressive as Voyticky's accomplishment was a second-place finish by freshman Beth O'Donnell, who ran the 5,000 meters in 17:19.42. Early in the race, O'Donnell separated herself from the pack and made it a two-person contest, between O'Donnell and Wake Forest's Janelle Kraus.
"Everybody else was racing for third," Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "For a freshman like Beth to take charge of the race showed a lot of guts on her part."
The Blue Devils tacked on 10 more points in the heptathlon, where junior Jeanie Minton set a school record with her third-place score of 4,570 points. In addition to Minton, two other Duke athletes-sophomore Amy Basile (4,161 points, sixth place) and senior Jamila Forte (3,995 points, eighth place)-also scored for the Blue Devils.
Duke's other top performers included freshman Megan Sullivan, who finished sixth in the 1,500 meters and nearly qualified for the ECAC regional championships; pole vaulters Lisa Bell and Jillian Schwartz, who tied for sixth with a height of 8-10 1/4; junior Maria Monge, who finished ninth with a 28.18-meter javelin throw; and senior Kristin Faraguna, who fought through shin injuries to post a season-best 10:20.16 time in the 3,000 meters.
The Blue Devils' 4x400-meter relay team of Voyticky, senior Colette Gurtler, junior Stephanie Thomas and freshman Kristen Sbarra also scored, setting a school record with its 7th-place finish of 3:49.07.
Eleven Blue Devils will compete next weekend in the prestigious Penn Relays, where Voyticky, Sbarra, Gurtler and Sullivan will participate in the distance-medley relay, televised on CBS between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday.
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