Battling strong winds this weekend in Clemson S.C., the men's track team scored 50 points at the ACC Championships, more than any Duke team since 1973.
"We were just super, super pleased with the effort," said associate men's track coach Norm Ogilvie, who had hoped his team would score 40 points in the meet. "We never expected them to do this well."
Duke finished eighth overall, 26 points ahead of Maryland and five points behind Georgia Tech.
The majority of the points came from the five individuals who stood up on the podium to accept awards for their top-three finishes.
Seth Benson placed the highest for Duke, finishing second in the pole vault with a 16-foot, 4 3/4-inch mark. The All-ACC sophomore has won the last two meets that he has competed in-the Raleigh Relays and the Duke Invitational.
Senior Jesse Allen turned in one of the Blue Devils' four third-place finishes. After taking more than a year off from the 400-meter hurdles because of an injury, Allen ran 51.79 in the event, taking third place and making the NCAA provisional qualifying time. Allen is the only Duke track athlete this year to make an NCAA provisional time.
Two Blue Devils excelled in events in which they had never competed before the ACC Championships. Charlie Kelly took third place in his first try at the 10,000 with a time of 31:38.98.
Sophomore Mike Zulandt, who was recruited for the long jump and hurdles, had expanded his repertoire enough to try the decathlon at the meet. His 6,232 points put him in third place in the ACC, third in Duke history and qualified him for the IC4As.
"He really put it together," Ogilvie said. "He may have been the biggest surprise of the meet."
The last third-place finish came from Zulandt's roommate, Terry Brennan, who ran 14:49.50 in the 5000.
"I just can't think of anyone that disappointed," Ogilvie said.
He specifically pointed to Kyle Leonard's fourth-place finish in the 1,500 and Bill Spierdowis' fifth-place finish in the 800.
All of the athletes at the meet were running against 30-40 mile per hour winds, which considerably slowed down times.
"It was just miserable," Ogilvie said. "It was cold, windy and not what you'd expect going down to Clemson in the middle of April."
The Blue Devils will hope for better weather next weekend when some athletes go to Philadelphia to compete in the Penn Relays. Benson, Brennan and Allen will compete at the Relays, as well as the 4x800 relay team in the 12-team Championship of America race.
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