Duke's cross country teams got to see what their second strings were capable of this weekend at the Wake Forest Relays.
The women's team finished second with a time of 1:50:28, while the men placed fourth in the four-team competition at 2:24:00.
Both Duke squads kept many of their top runners at home and used the event-which Virginia Tech swept-to get younger members of the team some racing experience.
"We approached this with a workout intensity, but I saw some positive things," women's head coach Kevin Jermyn said. "The fitness level for a few of the girls was better than I might originally have expected."
The race featured a relay format-a setup the Blue Devils will not see again this season. Each competitor ran two alternating legs of 3.7 kilometers for the men, and 2.55 for the women.
"Most teams run a lot of freshman, and it's a good format for bringing them along," men's head coach Norm Ogilvie said. "The longest most kids run in high school is 5K. This is 7K, but it's broken up into two legs, so he has time to recover."
Senior Emily McCabe led the Blue Devils, placing third individually with a time of 17:12. McCabe and sophomore Maddie McKeever combined for a time of 34:53, which was good enough for second overall. They were followed closely by the pair of sophomores Molly Lehman and Patricia Loughlin, which placed seventh.
On the men's side, senior Alex Romero recorded Duke's best individual performance, finishing his two splits in 23:11. Freshman James Osborne and senior Pat Parish combined for the best pair time at 46:24. Ogilvie said he was pleased with the trio's showing, indicating that they could factor into the first group of runners.
"We've got 14 guys that could end up in our top seven by the end of the season," Ogilvie said. "We don't need to decide that right now, but I'm very happy with our depth at this point."
Both the men's and women's teams will have their top squads on display when they travel to the James Madison Invitational Sept. 16.
"We still have a lot of work to get done," Jermyn said. "We'll have a much better idea of where we stand as a team in two weeks."
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