Duke's track and field teams were pleased with their performances this past weekend in the 15th annual Duke Invitational, the Blue Devils' single home meet which featured over 1,900 athletes from nearly 120 schools. Both coaches and athletes said they felt the meet went smoothly, dampened only by chilly weather.
"Everybody I talked to was very happy with the meet because it was run on time... and that's so important for the athletes," said men's coach Norm Ogilvie.
Saturday proved to be outstanding for the Blue Devils, when two school records were broken. The 4x100-meter women's relay team of Jenna Turner, Tirana McDermott, Janay McKie and Ifeyinwa Anoliefo finished in 47.60. Turner also broke a 15-year-old mark in the 400-meter hurdles.
Several athletes managed to post ECAC qualifying times over the weekend. The 4x400-meter relay team of Janeil Belle, Kristen Doody, McKie and Turner finished in 3:51.26, fast enough for sixth place. Katie Atlas took 12th place in the 800 meters and Megan Sullivan and Sheela Agrawal qualified in the 1,500-meter race with times of 4:25.63 and 4:27.54,
Women's coach Jan Samuelson-Ogilvie said especially impressive were several other performances throughout the weekend, including Jodi Schlesinger's ninth-place performance in the triple jump and Anoliefo's eighth-place finish in the long jump, as well as a strong race by McKie in the 200-meter dash.
Ogilvie said he was very satisfied with the men's efforts in the Invitational. Friday night's highlight was the men's distance medley relay, which the Blue Devil team of Brendan Fitzgibbon, Jon Amt, Bill Spierdowis and Nick Schneider won by over three seconds in 9:46.59.
"There are a lot of good teams here," said Amt, who ran the 400-meter leg of the race. "But with the four guys we had, we knew we could pretty much compete with any of them."
Fitzgibbon later captured the 1,500 meters with a time of 3:47.67. Fellow relay members Schneider and Spierdowis were also pleased with their 1,500-meter efforts. Schneider was first in his heat and ninth overall. Chris Williams, who placed second in Friday's 3,000-meter run, set his own personal record in the 1,500
"It is a very competitive field in the 1,500," said Norm Ogilvie.
"With 400 meters to go it was still anyone's race." Fitzgibbon was in ninth place with nearly a lap to go, but ran the last 400 meters in 58 seconds to finish first.
In other events, Michael Hatch and Jared Moore placed seventh and 11th, respectively, in the 5,000-meter run, and both qualified for the IC4As. Jeremy Block also surpassed the IC4A qualifying mark for the second week in a row with a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. In field events, Brent Warner managed a silver-medal performance in the pole vault, while Jeff Buttacio took eighth.
"We had very good things happen today, which bodes well for the ACC championships," said Samuelson-Ogilvie.
In addition to the multitude of college athletes, the Invitational also featured several high-profile professional athletes. Most prominent among them was former world-record holder Antonio Pettigrew, who won the 200-meter dash comfortably in 21.14. Former Duke pole vaulters Seth Benson and Jillian Schwartz also returned for the event.
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