Led by an All-American caliber performance from senior Nick Schneider, the Duke men’s cross country team earned a 10th-place finish at the Pre-National race at Indiana State University Saturday afternoon.
The race attracts many of the best teams in the nation as they prepare for the NCAA Championships in November. The strong performance shows the Blue Devils belong at the National Championships, head coach Norm Ogilvie said.
“We’re very happy with how we raced at Pre-Nationals, especially with Schneider, who ran the best race of his career at Duke,” Ogilvie said.
Schneider ran an intelligent race, refusing to get caught up in the big-race hype that causes many runners to begin the race at too quick a pace, Ogilvie said. Instead, he stayed within himself on the 8-kilometer course and passed the runners who started too aggressively on his way to an 11th-place finish in a time of 24:10.4.
Senior Michael Hatch and freshman Chris Spooner added 57th and 58th-place finishes, respectively. Keith Krieger and Dan Daly also placed for the Blue Devils. The race was Daly’s second consecutive solid showing as he stayed with Krieger for most of the race before Krieger pulled ahead at the end.
“The biggest thing to come out of the race is that we have an excellent chance at getting the second automatic bid to Nationals,” said Ogilvie, who thinks the team closed the gap between itself and regional rivals N.C. State and William & Mary.
Of more immediate concern, however, is the ACC Championship race in early November. Florida State, which finished fifth at Saturday’s event, emerged as the team to beat in the conference championship.
“We’re going into the ACC Championships feeling like we’re one of three teams with the chance to win it,” said an optimistic Ogilvie.
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