Athletes are creatures of habit.
Routines and schedules provide a necessary structure that help direct athletes' efforts in a focused manner. Part of a coaches job is to provide this very structure to push the team in a winning direction.
As women's cross country coach, that was part of Jan Samuelson-Ogilvie's plan as she traveled north this weekend with her players for the team's first meet of the year.
The destination: The "Fordham Fiasco" in Bronx, New York. It is a meet that Samuelson-Ogilvie schedules every year-and she does so with a clear purpose in mind.
"We like to start out [the season] with a meet that we can dominate," she said. "It gives us a chance to see where we are at early on in the season."
And dominate they did.
On Saturday, Duke placed first in the event, followed by Princeton, Holy Cross and Sacred Heart. Harvard rounded out the top five.
The victory was even more impressive for the Blue Devils considering that they rested their two top runners, Sheela Agrawal and Megan Sullivan. Even without these two, Duke was able to use a mix of veteran leaders and unproven freshmen to win the meet.
Samuelson-Ogilvie enjoyed being able to give her younger runners a chance to show their stuff in a race with real competition.
"Until you see somebody in a competitive setting, you really can't tell how they are going to react," Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "Holding [Agrawal and Sullivan] out gave our other women a chance to show their stuff."
Samuelson-Ogilvie was pleased with her runners considering that six of the eight top finishers in the meet were Blue Devils. Four of those six were freshmen competing in their first collegiate meet.
Sophomore Katie Atlas finished with the fastest time of the day--18:58.91. Her time was a bit slower than average winning times due, in part, to the unusually hot and humid weather in New York.
Close on the heels of Atlas was teammate Maddy Woodmansee, who finished third in the overall standings with a time of 19:16.16.
"It was good to see Maddy come on strong," Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "She had been out with mono last spring and this was a really good performance for her."
Blue Devils Lisa Nagorny, Allison Hoffman, Laura Schmid and Colleen Howard rounded out the top eight finishers.
The annual trip to the Big Apple laid the foundation of what Duke's coach hopes will be a tradition of winning throughout the entire year.
"I was very pleased with the group's effort as a whole," Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "We're going to be really good [this year]."
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