Heading into this weekend’s ACC Championships, the Duke men’s and women’s cross country teams are nationally ranked simultaneously for the first time since 2002. At No. 5 in the nation, the women have reached new heights this season while the No. 26 men have shown steady improvement throughout the season.
This year’s championship features a new course layout in College Park. In past years, teams have run a 3-kilometers circuit multiple times, but this year the women will run six kilometers of differing terrain and the men will run eight. The length of the course makes it more challenging to learn, but no team except Maryland has much experience with it, men’s head coach Norm Ogilvie said.
The women’s team, fresh off a second-place finish at the Penn State National Meet, enters the championships having won three of its five meets this year. After placing fourth last year, Duke is looking for its first ACC Championship win.
“The atmosphere around practice is amazing. Everyone is just out there working as hard as they can,” women’s head coach Kevin Jermyn said.
Junior Shannon Rowbury, a favorite to take the individual title, leads a pack of talented runners. Fellow juniors Natasha Roetter and Sally Meyerhoff are also expected to place highly. Jermyn stressed that team depth will be the key to Duke’s success. “Our fifth person is as—if not more—important than our first person because the fifth person can make up more spots than the first few girls,” Jermyn said.
Following the juniors are graduate student Ali Henderson, senior Phoebe Ko, junior Liz Ward, sophomore Lindsay Van Alstine and freshman Tiare Ferguson.
“Duke, UNC, N.C. State and Wake Forest all have a good chance at winning the race. The competition will be very strong,” Jermyn said.
Ogilvie reiterated the strength of the women’s field, noting that as many as five or six women’s teams may qualify for the NCAA Championship meet in mid-November.
The Duke men’s team goes into the ACC Championships having won two meets this year. Ogilvie said he believes Duke, Florida State, N.C. State and Clemson all have legitimate shots at winning this weekend. “I feel that it should be a real war,” he said.
The matchup against Clemson is extremely important. In the Southeast region, Duke ranks second and Clemson lies third. If Duke beats the Tigers this weekend, the Blue Devils will have some room for error at the regional meet and will still make the NCAA Championship.
“Senior Nick Schneider is a co-favorite to win individually. At the pre-national meet, he had the second best time amongst ACC runners. Captain Michael Hatch could also finish in the top five,” Ogilvie said. Standout freshman Chris Spooner runs this meet as a favorite for ACC Freshman of the Year.
“No doubt, we expect a top-three finish,” Ogilvie said of the team.
After losing Hatch for much of last season because of an injury, the team is completely healthy, and the Blue Devils are striving for their third NCAA appearance in the past five years.
Both of the cross country teams have a chance at placing well at the ACC Championships and also making the NCAA meet.
Each team feeds off the others’ successes, and having both teams ranked is a great compliment to the hard work of both teams. “I think it’s a goal of everyone to get both teams to the NCAA Championships in the same year,” Ogilvie said.
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