For the men's and women's track teams, numbers can tell the story of what happened this weekend at the ACC Championships at N.C. State. The one number that doesn't tell the story, though, is eight; both teams finished eighth out of nine teams in the conference, but still consider the weekend a success.
The meet's champion on the men's side was perennial ACC powerhouse Florida State, who scored 202 points. The women's title went to North Carolina and their amazing 238 points. Duke's eighth-place finishes came on the strength of 41 points from the men's team and 33 from the women's. In both meets, Duke beat the Maryland Terrapins to get out of the conference cellar.
"We're very happy with how we performed this weekend," men's head coach Norm Ogilvie said. "We're not judging ourselves against other teams as much as we are judging against ourselves and our potential: most guys ran seasonal bests, and that's how we like to measure a meet's success."
The men's team focused their attention upon four events: the 800-meter, 1,500-meter and 10,000-meter runs, as well as the pole vault.
"In those events, we scored 39 points," Norm Ogilvie said. "If we'd won those events, we would have gotten 40; we didn't do it with wins, though. We did it with depth."
The men's team pulled down ten points each in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter meets, led by the scoring of a deep middle distance team.
In the former, Donny Fowler ran a scanty 1:51.71 to earn a fourth-place finish. Right behind him were teammates Jon Amt and Tom Gianturco, at 1:52.13 and 1:52.16, respectively. These finishes were good enough for sixth and seventh.
In the 1,500 meter run, Nick Schneider's blistering 3:48.81 netted him third place. Ian Cronin followed with a fifth-place finish at 3:50.03.
"We've come to realize that we can't compete with teams like Clemson who are fully funded," Schneider said. "We've come to realize that's not a realistic goal, and so we focus more on our strengths."
Clemson finished second in the men's meet.
"We pretty much accomplished what we set out to do," Norm Ogilvie said.
On the women's side, the results were similar. Duke had no individual event winners, but showed depth across many races, especially the 800-meter run, where Lauren Matic finished fifth and Kristen Doody ninth. Matic's 2:08.54 was the third-best time in Duke history, and one of the high points of the women's meet.
"We had a very good meet," women's head coach Jan Ogilvie said. "We're strong in areas where the ACC is among the strongest in the country, so it's hard to come out of a meet like this, with all these spectacular performances and say, 'Well, we only finished eighth.'"
The Blue Devils next compete at the prestigious Penn Relays in State College, Pa, next weekend.
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