Going into the second day of the ACC Indoor Championship meet in Clemson, South Carolina, the women's track and field team found itself at the bottom of the list. With hopes of climbing out of the ACC cellar, Shannon Rowbury and Laura Chen finished up Saturday with All-ACC performances in the mile run and pole vault, respectively.
While the women's team placed eighth overall, only coming in ahead of Virginia, the performances of the individuals were positive developments for Duke.
"We had a very successful weekend," head coach Norm Ogilvie said. "The ACC is one of the most difficult and competitive conferences in the nation, and we had a lot of outstanding performances."
Among those performances was Paige Miller's time in the 5000-meter run. Placing third in the event and garnering All-ACC honors, Miller automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships with a time of 16:15.39, breaking another school record this season. Last weekend at the Armory Collegiate Invitational, Miller broke the meet and school record in the 3000-meter run with a time of 9:18.30.
Other strong showings included Shannon Rowbury's mile run, in which she placed third. The race was extremely competitive as North Carolina's Erin Donahue, Florida State's Natalie Hughes and Rowbury ran neck-and-neck through the finish line. Donahue had made the first move and Rowbury was in position to move on the outside at the last turn, but Donahue had cut in front of her to prevent Rowbury from advancing. As Donahue ran to the outside, Hughes found an opening inside. With three runners sprinting to the finish, Hughes's inside advantage won her the race with a time of 4:48.46. Both Donahue and Rowbury finished a fraction of a second behind the winner.
In the field events, freshman Debra Vento cleared 5-8.5 in the high jump and also received conference recognition. Chen's 12-5.5 pole vault performance was a personal best.
On the men's side, Nick Schneider and Casey Reardon ran strong races, considering each competed in multiple races each day. In the preliminary round of the mile run, Reardon ran a 4:12.59, a seasonal best for the senior.
In the 3000-meter run, Schneider placed fifth with a time of 8:24.78, placing behind two of the most dominant distance runners in the conference and a pair of fresh runners. Schneider, on the other hand, had competed in four races in the last eight days.
The distance medley team, which include Schneider, Reardon, Tommy Colven and Steve Craig, placed third with a time of 9:59.37 and received All-ACC honors. Also performing well was John Amt, whose time of 1:53.08 in the preliminary 800-meter run was the fastest time a Duke runner has had on a flat track: he subsequently finished fifth place.
In the pole vault, Duke's Brent Warner, who was recovering from the flu, managed to tie for first place with Florida State's Patrick Gerberich, clearing 16-4.75.
"I would classify this weekend as a success," Ogilvie said. "We broke several school records and had some competitive performances in the ACC. The only thing we don't have is the depth, but we're expecting that will be changing soon. We have been concentrating on our own performances and we've been doing well."
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