Kicking down the stretch of her 5,000-meter race at the National Championship, Clara Horowitz realized that she was legging it out in person with opponents she usually on sees on results sheets.
Even though the other six members of the track and field team representing Duke at the NCAAs failed to finish as high as Horowitz's fifth place, it was a feeling shared by the entire team. Previously the Blue Devils had only sent a single runner to the National Championship meet, but this year Duke qualified seven.
Horowitz garnered All-American honors after clocking in at a time of 16:34.44 despite the humid conditions this past weekend in Austin, Texas.
"It was just a great feeling coming in--the excitement of the whole National Championship atmosphere with the packed stadium," said Horowitz, who became just the fourth Duke woman to earn All-American honors in outdoor track. "I feel like I have stepped it up a level, and now I have to stay there."
Kim Smith dominated the 5,000-m final throughout, while Horowitz stuck with a pack or runners behind Smith for the race's entirety. Over the final 800 meters, Horowitz moved up a position, after running a race that head coach Norm Ogilvie described as "smart and smooth."
"I took out conservatively because I didn't want to die of the heat," Horowitz said. "My major goal was top-eight. Everything came into place at the right time on the right day."
The same could not be said for the other Blue Devils in Austin.
Three runners competed in the longest race of the championship, the 10,000-meters. Heidi Hullinger, Natasha Roetter and Laura Stanley finished 14th, 21th and 24th, respectively. Stanley was hampered by side pain that developed during warmups and slowed her during the race.
Hullinger, the lone Duke senior at the championships, capped a Duke career with a strong showing.
"When she came out of high school, no one would expect her to finish 14th in the nation," Ogilvie said. "It is a great story of improvement, and that was a very very strong finish."
Wednesday's high jump preliminaries were canceled when rain wiped out much of the first day of competition. In Saturday's final, freshman Debra Vento jumped 5-10, two inches short of her season-best mark, to earn a 15th-place finish. Vento cleared each of her first two heights on her initial attempts and then jumped over the 5-10 mark on her third and final chance.
Sally Meyerhoff competed in the same 5,000-m event as Horowitz, crossing the tape 19th. Wednesday's preliminary heats were also not run in the 5,000-m because of rain.
Thursday, Shannon Rowbury failed to advance to the finals of the 1,500-meter run, finishing 18th.
"Rowbury has had the best overall season of everybody, so to have one off race is not a big deal," Ogilvie said.
No one on the men's team qualified for the meet.
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