Strong performances by the senior captains highlighted the men's and women's cross country teams' second and fourth place finishes, respectively, at the ACC Cross Country Championships in Charlottesville, Va. Saturday.
The 16th ranked women's team finished second to No. 2 North Carolina State in a field that featured eight nationally-ranked teams.
"This was our best performance of the season," head coach Kevin Jermyn said. "We raced well, and we came out of the weekend more excited than we've been all year."
Senior Emily McCabe and sophomore Maddie McKeever finished first and second for the Blue Devils and received All-ACC Honors for their third and seventh place overall finishes.
"Emily and Maddie have been exceptional all year and they continued to do so this weekend," Jermyn said.
The biggest breakthrough of the weekend was the performance of team captain Laura Stanley. Stanley, a fifth-year senior, hurt her hip at the end of the spring track season and was unable to run for the entire summer and most of the fall. She raced for the first time Saturday and finished third for Duke and 22nd overall.
"To place as well as she did has a lot to do with her talent and how tough she is," Jermyn said. "We ran better than we have all year, but I think we'll be even stronger in the weeks to come with [her] back."
Unfortunately, the return of Stanley was accompanied by the loss of fifth-year senior Natasha Roetter to a foot injury. Roetter has been a key contributor to the team in the past, and her return for the end of the season is yet to be determined.
Despite this setback, Jermyn has been encouraged by the team's improvement from week to week.
"If we continue to follow this progression, we have the potential to place in the top four in the national championship," Jermyn said.
The men's team also saw improvement this weekend after its performance at the NCAA Preview two weeks ago.
The Blue Devils came from behind in the last mile to beat Clemson, which they lost to at the Preview, and also narrowed the gap on third-place-finishing Virginia, which is ranked 29th in the nation.
"The goal going into this week was to rebound off of our performance at the NCAA Preview," senior co-captain Keith Krieger said. "Coming into this race, we tried to get ourselves excited, to reaffirm to ourselves that the end of the season is what we've been training for and peaking for."
Krieger did his part to help the team by finishing 11th and winning All-ACC Honors.
"Keith gave an outstanding effort," head coach Norm Ogilvie said. "He is one of the better distance runners in the country, and he's on track right now to perhaps be an All-American."
Junior Chris Spooner was the second finisher for Duke and placed 17th overall.
"It was a good effort by everybody," Ogilvie said. "We're very pleased, and we feel we're going to peak at the right time."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.