The men and women's track and field teams competed at the Tar Heel Fast Times meet in Chapel Hill Saturday. Members of both teams logged some exceptional performances and qualified for the IC4A and ECAC meets in Boston in early March.
The most impressive Blue Devil accomplishment was turned in by senior Brent Warner, as he started his season off strong by taking first place in the men's pole vault with a height of 16-6.75. His mark was the highest the All-American had ever opened an indoor season with, and it is currently the best height in the ACC this season. With his jump he qualified for the IC4A meet.
In the men's 3000-meter run, junior Nick Schneider ran 8:25.25, finishing second in the race and moving into fifth on Duke's all-time list. He also qualified for the IC4A meet. In that same race Chas Salmen surprised head coach Norm Ogilvie with an 8:33.76 time, good enough to clinch fifth place. He just missed qualifying for the IC4A meet by four seconds, and had never before broken 8:50.
Freshman Dan King turned in another impressive time, as he ran a 49.83 in the 400 meters to finish fifth in Saturday's meet. The time was good enough to move into third place in Duke history.
Blue Devils took second and third in the men's mile, as Casey Reardon and Cameron Bell ran 4:20.15 and 4:22.49, respectively.
On the women's side, Rachel Umberger finished first in the 800-meter run and also ran on the winning distance medley relay team with Jan Faraguna, Meaghan Leon and Clara Horowitz. It was the first meet that Horowitz, the former US Junior Cross Country Champion, competed in after taking last semester off from running. Outstanding performances were also turned in by sophomore Allison Nesbitt, who recorded a personal best time of 8.68 while finishing eighth in the 60-meter hurdles, and pole-vaulter Laura Chen, who matched her personal best with a height of 11-11.75. Both women qualified for the ECAC meet.
Many of the Duke runners performed particularly well given that the meet was marred by technical difficulties with the timing system, delaying the starts of many events.
"It was very tough on the competitors because they had to restart races," Ogilvie said. "Our kids ran really well considering the conditions."
Both the men and women's teams will compete in the Virginia Tech Invitational this weekend.
"Saturday was a great day," Ogilvie said. "We expect even better performances when we go and run on a banked track this weekend in Blacksburg, Virginia."
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