The men's cross country team completed its season this weekend, while the women are looking forward to the season-ending NCAA Championships today.
The men's team concluded its season with a fourth-place finish at the IC4A Championship in the Bronx, N.Y. Duke won the event last year but was unable to defend its title as the team didn't have any individuals place in the top 10.
"Cross country is only about the top five, and we didn't have the up-front strength that we needed to defend our title," head coach Norm Ogilvie said.
All East Honors were awarded to senior Keith Krieger, sophomore Geary Gubbins and senior Dan Daly, who finished 12th, 14th and 23rd overall, respectively. This was the second year in a row Krieger and Daly received the honor.
"We had a good year, we just didn't have a great year," Ogilvie said. "We're going to take a short break from training and then focus our attention on indoor track."
With the women's "A" team set to compete today at the NCAA Championships, the "B" team finished 11th at the ECAC Championships.
Sophomore Maddie McKeever is proof that the ECAC is an excellent opportunity for young runners. She built off her fourth place finish there last year to develop into one of Duke's top runners this year.
Today, McKeever and her teammates will compete at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. Encouraged by their second place finish at the NCAA Southeast Regional meet two weeks ago, they are hoping to place among the top 10 teams in the country.
"We're coming into this race more confidently than we have all season," head coach Kevin Jermyn said. "If we're able to run at a similar level to what we did at Regionals, we have a real good chance of being in the top 10."
The Blue Devils are familiar with placing among the best in the nation. They finished second in Terre Haute two years ago and third last year.
"It's been a great season so far, and we hope we can send our seniors off with a great race," Jermyn said.
Recent rain has made the course muddy, but the team has been training for a variety of conditions and is prepared to make adjustments during the race.
"Ultimately, the national championships come down to some big race-time decisions," Jermyn said. "Our athletes have to go out there and make some big moves and run aggressively, and I think they're well prepared to do so."
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