For the past 12 years, Wallace Wade Stadium has come alive for the GM-Duke Invitational, drawing collegiate and elite athletes from around the country.
But this isn't just any year for Duke track. And this meet, which kicks off at 2 p.m. today and ends around 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, won't be just like every other Duke Invitational.
"We're really looking forward to the Duke Invitational this weekend," men's associate coach Norm Ogilvie said. "It's really one of the premier meets on the East Coast."
The meet will serve as a springboard for Duke's banner year in track, which includes the ACC championships later this month, the NCAA championships in May and the retirement of Duke track legend Al Buehler. The Duke Invitational will feature more collegiate teams than usual and several elite athletes who are hoping to make the Olympics in September.
The Duke men's and women's teams have also been unusually successful this season, breaking numerous records and sending athletes to the NCAA championships for cross country and indoor track.
Junior Jillian Schwartz, who broke the school and ACC record last weekend at the Colonial Relays with her jump of 12' 8", will try to defend her title and break another record. After her 13th-place finish at the indoor NCAAs, freshman Sheela Agrawal will compete in the 3,000 meters.
On the men's side, the distance medley relay team will be able to test itself against some of the nation's premier teams, and relay member Brendan Fitzgibbon will try to continue his record-breaking success in the 800. Seth Benson, who won the pole vault last year, will compete in the event tomorrow afternoon.
Usually, about 45 teams along the East Coast attend the Duke Invitational, but other more distant schools choose not to make the trip. This year, however, not all of the teams will be within a bus ride of Durham.
"This weekend we'll have an extra amount of teams who are coming to the Duke Invitational who usually don't, because they want to see the facility prior to the NCAA meet," Ogilvie said.
Although world-record holder Marion Jones will not compete in the Duke Invitational this year, as she has in the past, there will be a strong presence of former and future Olympians. Among the elite athletes competing are Antonio Pettigrew, 1991 world champion in the 400 and 1998 world-record holder on the 4x400 relay team, and 1996 Olympian Joan Nesbit, who will run the 5,000 tonight. Other 1996 Olympians who will attend this weekend's meet include Derrick Adkins, Calvin Harrison and Meredith Rainey-Valmon.
"There will be many Olympic hopefuls trying to get qualifying marks for the Olympic trials," Ogilvie said. "My guess is we'll have at least a dozen people competing at the Duke Invitational who will make this U.S. Olympic team come this July. We don't know who they are, but they'll be there."
Kevin Lees contributed to this story.
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