CHAPEL HILL - The men's cross country team entered yesterday's ACC Championship with a pretty big dream-to somehow find a way to beat perennial power N.C. State.
But never in Duke's wildest dreams was the Wolfpack this good.
The Blue Devils finished in the predicted second slot at North Carolina's Finley Course, but N.C. State stole the show, tallying a team score of 16, just one point greater than the lowest possible total. Wolfpack runners earned the top four finishes and also took sixth, simply dominating the field en route to their ACC record score.
"I'm a little bit speechless. I knew they were good, but I didn't know they were that good," said Blue Devil junior Terry Brennan. "They're aggressive; they're the best State team I've seen since I've been at Duke."
And while Duke didn't quite steal the show, it did what it needed to remain in NCAA Championships contention. The Blue Devils finished 29 points lower than third-place Wake Forest, and no Duke runner finished worse than 36th. Duke's team score of 70 represents a five-point improvement over last year's second-place score.
"We thought all along we were probably running here to get second place, so there's no disappointment in that," associate men's coach Norm Ogilvie said. "We thought that rather than run for second, we could be a little adventurous and go after first. We definitely went after them, and after the first two miles, we were really happy with where everyone was."
Brennan led the way for the Blue Devils, earning All-ACC honors with a seventh-place finish and a time of 25:09.7. The junior was running in the top five earlier in the race, but dropped a few spots over the final stretch. Still, his finish is as high as any Blue Devil's this decade.
"I ran the race that I wanted to run," Brennan said. "I wasn't going to be afraid of anybody. It might have cost me a place or two [in the end], but I wasn't going to be afraid of the State guys."
Missing All-ACC honors by four seconds was sophomore Sean Kelly, who finished in 11th place with a time of 25:17.9. Senior Charlie Kelly and sophomore Jay Champi came in 17th and 18th, respectively. Junior Mike McKeever struggled in the race early but finished strong while staking 20th place.
The most disappointed Blue Devil was Brendan Fitzgibbon. Usually one of Duke top three runners, the junior finished 33rd, a sharp drop-off from last year's 17th-place showing.
But in two weeks Fitzgibbon will have a chance to redeem himself at the Districts, where the Blue Devils hope to solidify their claim to an at-large NCAA Championships bid.
Yesterday, Ogilvie was disappointed in the 37-second spread that separated his top runner from his fifth finisher. Two weeks ago at the IC4As, the spread was only 19 seconds.
"If we tighten up a little bit, we'll be really good," Ogilvie said. "This doesn't hurt us any. All we have to do is rest up a little bit before Nov. 13 and be ready to race."
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