Junior Keith Kreiger, Jon Fox and Billy Kennedy spent this summer together running through the foothills of Poland. When they weren’t teaching English to underprivileged children, they took breezy days to train together and prepare for the upcoming year.
The teammates are hoping that their summer training will pay dividends come fall.
This season, the men’s cross country team seems to have what it lacked last year—depth beyond its top four runners. Even though they lost their two fastest runners from last season, the Blue Devils remain optimistic about the overall strength of the team.
“There were a lot of signs last year that we were close to qualifying for the NCAAs,” head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “In fact, we were very strong through four men, but we were definitely lacking a fifth man last year.”
With the addition of two high school All-American runners and the further development of their returnees, the Blue Devils believe they will be able to compensate for the graduations of Michael Hatch and Nick Schneider, last year’s top two runners.
Beginning with last year’s successful spring track season, the distance runners have continued to improve, and a handful qualified for the 10,000- and 5,000-meter runs at last year’s season-ending IC4A Championships. Kreiger, who will most likely lead the Blue Devils this season, placed 11th in the 5,000-meter run at the Championship meet.
Following closely behind Kreiger, sophomore Chris Spooner will try to improve upon his rookie performance. As a freshman, Spooner was the second-best first-year runner in the ACC.
Rounding out the top five performers will likely be senior captain Chas Salmen and juniors Alex Romero and Dan Daly. Ogilvie, however, noted that the addition of freshmen Geary Gubbins and Kevin McDermott would also strengthen the overall prospects of the team. Kevin McDermott, younger brother of junior Sean McDermott, represented the U.S. in the PanAm Games this summer in the steeplechase, which he ran faster in high school than Duke’s best steeplechaser last year.
The team has another pair of brothers on the team, senior Chas and junior Marco Salmen, which Chas explains has contributed to the closeness of the team.
“On the whole team, there’s a sense of brotherhood,” older brother Chas said. “ I think it’s really important. As a team, we expect to sweat for our coach, throw up for our brothers and bleed for Duke.”
With most of Duke’s top runners entering their junior seasons this year, the team expects to grow even closer.
“The cool thing about this team is that we’re going to be together for the next two years, essentially,” said the elder Salmen, who redshirted a year and will ride out his eligibility for another season. “Probably our top seven will be back next year, barring injuries. And I think that makes our team a really tight team.”
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