Any team hoping to deprive Caroline Bierbaum and the rest of the women's cross country squad of the Blue Devils' first Atlantic Coast Conference championship are going to need more than one good race. They're going to need four good years.
"Here, we're all young--and pretty good," said Bierbaum, when describing why the Blue Devils could be a national force over the next few years
Bierbaum, the top finisher for Duke in the last three races, is the fastest of the East Campus residents, who comprise many of the scorers on the cross country team this year.
She cites the strength of her class as one of her prime reasons for choosing to become a Blue Devil.
"I signed in January, and by that time, [Duke] had already taken on five freshmen, so I knew it was a serious class."
So far, Bierbaum has led this serious class to some serious results.
The women's team began its season in earnest at the Lou Onesty invitational Sept. 14, where it won the meet.
Since then, two patterns emerged that have been keys to the Blue Devils' season: The freshmen lead the team, and Bierbaum leads the freshmen.
She won the individual competition, traversing the 5,000-meter course in 16:59-33 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor, classmate Clara Horowitz.
"From the first race, Caroline has been the number-one runner on a very very good team." head coach Jan Ogilvie said.
The strength of the team is evident, with a NCAA coaches poll ranking that places them at 13th in the country and third in the ACC, which Ogilvie calls "the top conference in the country for women's cross country." Five of the nine teams in the ACC are nationally ranked, and Bierbaum and the class of 2006 have carried the Blue Devils to third place going into the conference championships in Atlanta this weekend.
As good as Bierbaum and the freshmen are, they might have been better: Incoming freshman and highly touted recruit Natasha Roetter, a two-time Foot Locker All-American in high school, decided not to run at the collegiate level in late August.
Roetter was the most highly regarded of Duke's recruits, but Bierbaum has filled the gap so well that she herself is surprised.
"I've surprised myself in that I have asserted myself as No. 1," Bierbaum said, "I wasn't expecting that to happen."
Bierbaum began running her freshman year at the Groton School (Mass.), where she joined the team as a way of keeping in shape. She found her niche, winning the ISL league championship four consecutive times and being team captain her senior year. However, this spring will be Bierbaum's first season of track--she was also a varsity tennis player in high school.
Duke appealed to Bierbaum for more than its no-nonsense approach to running. The native New Yorker also credited nice weather and serious academics with drawing her south to Durham.
"Right now, it's just pretty cool to be a young runner and a good runner on this team," she said.
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