Although Tom Becker, arguably Duke's finest cross country runner of the decade, graduated after last season, a group of three juniors gave the Blue Devils hope that the team could continue to build on the momentum from last season's NCAA appearance.
At the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota Saturday, the best finish posted by those three juniors was a 112th-place finish from Mike McKeever. And in a field that men's associate head coach Norm Ogilvie noted as the best ever assembled in the regular season, that spelled trouble.
But led by senior Charlie Kelly and two sophomores, the No. 20 Blue Devils still managed to post a very respectable 10th-place finish in a field of 28 with 325 points, beating three other ranked teams in the process.
Fifth-ranked Wisconsin captured the meet title with 86 points.
However, the focus after the meet drifted toward what could have been. Although Duke's top runner, Kelly, and its fourth runner, Tim Schaefer, finished within 24 seconds of one another, Duke's fifth-place runner, McKeever, didn't cross the line until 31 seconds after Schaefer. The uncharacteristic 55-second spread cost the Blue Devils, who relied on a tight one-through-five finish all of last year, two spots in the standings.
"The only way we're going to be very good is to have a tight team spread," Ogilvie said. "We don't have a front runner. Charlie Kelly is running really well for Charlie Kelly, but he's not one of the elite guys-that's why we have to be very tight. The story here was not having a fifth man."
Blame that on illness.
Terry Brennan, expected to be Duke's front-runner this year, sat out his second straight meet with the flu, and McKeever and Brendan Fitzgibbon raced despite being under the weather. In their place, sophomores Jay Champi and Sean Kelly rose to the occasion finishing 56th and 57th, respectively.
And for two sophomores who can both count the number of times they've run with the A team on one hand, those times certainly speak volumes for the squad's depth.
"I can't say enough about Jay Champi," Ogilvie said. "He's really stepped up his sophomore year to a level no one expected him to based on his high school experience.
"Shawn had a real good high school record. He knew what he had to do over the summer, and he did it. We expect him to have a good year this year."
Even with the sophomores' performance, it was Kelly who headlined Duke's efforts. For the second consecutive week, he led the Blue Devils across the finish line. This time, Kelly did it in front of a crowd that included his parents and friends, who had made the four-hour drive up from his hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa.
"Our schedule usually keeps us here on the East coast, so I was obviously excited about the possibility that relatives, as well as high school coaches and teammates, might be able to watch the race," Kelly said. "That fact added an extra incentive to perform.
And the out-of-district competition should prove invaluable in the spring.
"Although the team might have placed higher, we accomplished our underlying goal for this meet: chalking up wins over quality out-of-district squads, which is essential to getting a bid to the NCAAs in November."
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