With the cool temperature, gentle breeze and lack of humidity serving as the backdrop for the tri-school cross country meet on East Campus Saturday morning, the women's coaches had a good idea that the old course record of 18:05 could be broken.
They just didn't realize how badly it would get shattered.
Freshman Sheela Agrawal ran a shocking 16:59 on the nearly five-kilometer course, beating the old record by a full minute and six seconds.
And she came in second.
Virginia Commonwealth's Maria-Elena Calle, the ninth-place finisher at last year's NCAA Championships, ran step for step with Agrawal for the first three-and-a-half kilometers of the race before pulling away over the final stretch to beat Agrawal to the finish line by six seconds.
The second-place finish marked the first time this season that Agrawal has not won a meet she entered, following individual titles at the Fordham and Griak invitationals.
"I'm not disappointed," Agrawal said. "I wasn't expecting to win every race, especially as a freshman. [Calle] ran really well today."
Despite not having the top individual finisher and sitting out an injured Megan Sullivan, the Blue Devils won the meet with ease by sending the next four runners across the line after Calle and Agrawal.
Junior Ellie Culp led the parade of Duke runners by finishing the race in 17:46. Anne Wickman, Katie Atlas and Maddy Woodmansee rounded out the team's scoring with times of 17:48, 17:54, and 17:57, respectively.
As a testament to the excellent running conditions, the top six Blue Devils, in addition to Calle and a UNC-Wilmington runner, broke the old track record.
"I'm very happy," women's coach Jan Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "It was a very tough week for us because the students were going through their first week of exams. Racing is tough, but they ran tough today."
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