The coach may say it and the runners may believe it.
But in the end, the record books can't prove it.
One season after advancing to its first NCAA Championships in nearly two decades, the men's cross country team put forth a laudable encore performance this year. And by year's end, associate head coach Norm Ogilvie and his runners even felt this year's edition surpassed last year's.
But when November 15 came and went without a whisper from the NCAA selection committee, reality crashed down upon the Blue Devils-there wouldn't be a trip to Bloomington, Ind., for the NCAAs. The cross country swan song of Al Buehler, Duke's longtime Director of Track, would end not with a flourish, but a whimper.
The team that put up similar credentials to last year's NCAA qualifier will have to sit at home. The chance to prove what the coaches and runners all knew would never come.
"After our finish at the regional meet-which was honestly about as high as we could have finished given the other teams' performances that day-we were hoping that the results from the other districts would put us in good position for a bid," senior Charlie Kelly said. "Certain events in those districts didn't happen and the NCAA selection committee held fast to its bid criteria."
The gut-wrenching IC4A three-point loss to Princeton, which eventually finished 19th at the NCAAs, may have been costly. The disappointing 10th-place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota without top runner Terry Brennan certainly didn't help. But instead of sulking in what-coulda-beens and what-shoulda-beens, the team can rest easy knowing that when the time came to make its statement to the selection committee, Duke came out shouting.
It just wasn't quite loud enough in the end.
At the ACC Championships in early November, the Blue Devils comfortably finished in second place behind national powerhouse N.C. State. At the NCAA District qualifying meet in mid-November, the Blue Devils raced to a respectable fourth-place finish, behind the Wolfpack (3rd in NCAAs), William & Mary (13th) and James Madison (27th).
"[Not going to NCAAs] is probably more frustrating for the guys than for me," Ogilvie said. "I know how good we are, and the nationals is only one meet. We had opportunities to decide it on the field on the 13th of November. We really can't complain. We just have to move on and see if we can run better next year."
But this wasn't supposed to be another wait-till-next-year type season. Despite losing four-year stalwart Tom Becker, the Blue Devils returned a promising junior class and a solid senior captain in Kelly.
Kelly, however, turned into more than just a solid leader-he became the most consistent runner in the lineup, finishing among Duke's top three in every race this season. Despite not having a healthy Brennan in the lineup until the IC4As, Kelly led Duke to a dominant win at the Fordham Invitational, the 10th-place finish at the Griak and a blowout win in Duke's only home meet.
When Brennan returned, he paced the Blue Devils in the final three races of the season, earning All-East, All-ACC and All-District honors. Brennan's comeback, Kelly's continued strong showings and the resurgence of Brendan Fitzgibbon propelled Duke to a finish that was nearly enough to warrant an NCAA bid.
"We certainly didn't have two all-district finishes last year, nor an all-conference performer; we certainly weren't as close to beating Princeton as we were this year," Kelly said. "We were running strongly at the end of the season, where last year many of us were pretty beat-up. In those respects, this season showed improvement.
"However, I came into the season with the intention for our team to return to the NCAAs, especially since it would be the last go-around for our long-time head coach. I'm disappointed, as captain, that I wasn't able to get them there."
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