Heading into Saturday's NCAA regional qualifying meet, the men's cross country team hoped to strengthen its case for an NCAA at-large bid by defeating William & Mary.
A valiant effort by Duke but one phenomenal outing from William & Mary later, the waiting game begins.
With their fourth place finish in the southeast region behind No. 3 N.C. State, No. 16 William & Mary and No. 9 James Madison, the 22nd-ranked Blue Devils teeter on the bubble of the NCAA Championship field. The top two teams from each of the nine regions qualify automatically, and 13 at-large bids remain for the third and fourth place teams in each region.
"The way I figure it, we're in," men's associate coach Norm Ogilvie said. "It's real close, you could never tell what the selection committee's going to do. I'm very confident that we're one of the top 25 teams in the country, so you hope when they take the top 31, that we're in.
"We were happy with everything the guys did. It's out of our hands now-we've done our best. We think we're a top 20 team, and that was our goal this year. We've got to wait for the bids to come out now."
Junior Terry Brennan and senior Charlie Kelly led the Blue Devils by finishing 15th and 19th, respectively. The 19th place finish at the Regionals was the best ever for Kelly, putting the cap on a truly outstanding senior season.
"That was definitely a nice way to end my career on that course," Kelly said. "Just knowing that it was my last time around here, it put a little pressure on me, wanting to go out on a big note, They've done a good job getting us ready. My legs were really fresh."
Shaking off an abysmal 33rd-place performance at ACCs two weeks ago, junior Brendan Fitzgibbon redeemed himself and came in as the third Blue Devil in 31:19. A natural miler, Fitzgibbon gave his team a tremendous boost with his effort on the 6.2-mile Furman course
"For me, it was a huge personal letdown after the ACCs because we didn't go into the race mentally prepared," Fitzgibbon said. "Racing a distance over six miles, it's tough. I went in there thinking I just needed to hold on."
Sean Kelly and Tim Schaefer rounded out Duke's top five by finishing 37th and 39th, respectively.
Neither Fitzgibbon's effort or Duke's tight 46-second spread, however, could help get the Blue Devils within striking distance of either JMU or William & Mary. So for the next 24 hours until the bids are announced Tuesday morning, the butterflies will still be dancing.
"Sure we're a little nervous," Charlie Kelly said. "It would have been nice to have an automatic bid, but we're happy with what we've done this season."
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