Blue Devils hit snag at NCAA meet

The Duke men's and women's cross country teams competed at the NCAA championships in Ames, Iowa, on Monday. Following extremely successful ACC campaigns, in which the men took the conference title and the women matched their best-ever finish, hopes were riding high.

The women, competing in their second straight NCAA Championship meet, placed 24th out of 31 teams, checking in with 539 points. They improved over last year's finish by one place, leaving the team with a possible rallying point for next season.

Also providing inspiration for the 2001 campaign was the fact that the team's top runner in the race was sophomore Sheela Agrawal, who completed the 6,000 meter course in 20:50.4, earned All-American honors for the second straight year The race's top 30 runners were named to the All-American team., Agrawal placed seventh overall.

The team's lone senior, Megan Sullivan, finished 119th with a time of 22:07.3. Junior runners Katie Atlas and Maddy Woomansee finished 149th and 195th, respectively, with times of 22:36.6 and 22:51.0. The Blue Devils also had three freshman runners competing: Lisa Nagorny, Laura Schmid, and Allison Hoffman. The trio finished 211th, 222nd and 237th, respectively.

For the men's team, the season ended with thoughts of what might have been. The team gained confidence at the ACC Championship meet by upending perennial conference powerhouse N.C. State to take first place.

However, at the NCAA Championships, the men were unable to capitalize on that momentum, placing 31st out of 31 teams.

The men's team placed only one runner, Sean Kelly, in the top 100. Kelly, a junior, placed 94th with a time of 31:42.8 on the 10,000 meter course. Trailing him were senior Terry Brennan, coming in 129th in 31:57.1 and senior Brendan Fitzgibbon, who finished in 208th place with a time of 32:45.2. Junior Jay Champi (33:14.2/228th), freshman Chris Williams (33:32.9/240th), senior Mike McKeever (33:32.9/242nd), and Junior Adam Perez (33:52.8/244th) also ran for the Blue Devils.

Arkansas captured the men's team title, with 83 points, while Colorado took the women's title by scoring 117 points. Keith Kelly of Providence College and Kara Gargas-Wheeler of Colorado took the men's and women's individual crowns, with respective times of 30:14.5 and 20:30.5.