During the season's first two weeks, junior cross-country standout Terry Brennan has done a lot of head-scratching, rehabbing and cheering. What he hasn't done at all, however, is run in a meet.
After sitting out the season's first two weeks due to an injury and an illness, the Blue Devils' projected top runner finally makes his season debut when Duke hosts UNC-Wilmington and Virginia Commonwealth in a tri-school meet Saturday morning on the familiar grounds of East Campus.
"The last few weeks have not been fun," Brennan said. "I have been very frustrated and my progress on both the injury and the illness has been very slow.
"To be honest, my expectations for this weekend are very low. I still feel as if I haven't completely recovered and training has not gone particularly well. I will probably run the first few miles cautiously and see what I have left for the end."
The coaches, however, will have their eyes set on more than just Brennan Saturday. The triangular meet gives the coaching staff a final chance to evaluate the team in race conditions before the team heads to the IC4As in two weeks.
"One of the three juniors (Brennan, Brendan Fitzgibbon and Mike McKeever) could step up," men's associate head coach Norm Ogilvie said. "Another guy we're hoping to be in the mix is Kyle Leonard. [This] meet gives everyone else a second chance to reassert themselves and break into the top seven."
The women's cross country team, running for the first time in program history as a ranked team after debuting at No. 25 this week, looks to continue its recent string of success against two other teams competing in the same region.
Already a two-time individual winner, freshman Sheela Agrawal may receive a stiff challenge from VCU harrier Maria-Elena Calle. Although she has run two sub-par races this season, Calle finished ninth at last year's NCAAs.
While Duke's top runners may view this as another early-season challenge, other runners treat this event as their only chance all season to race in familiar territory and in front of some familiar faces.
"This is a great chance to race at home," women's coach Jan Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "There's not another home athletic event Saturday, and we finish right down the middle of East Campus.
"We spend a lot of time running in the woods, this gives them exposure on East."
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