The Duke cross country teams will head in different directions this weekend as the men race in the Great American Cross Country Festival Friday and the women head to Greensboro to race in the Hagan Stone Cross Country Classic.
The runners that placed in the bottom ten for the Duke men at Wake Forest Dual on September 11 did not compete last weekend at the Roy Griak Invitational. This Friday in Cary, they will get their chance to run. The Blue Devils look to repeat their victorious performance from last year’s festival.
Sophomore Dominick Robinson believes he has a chance to capture first place in the meet.
“I want to go out with the leaders and try to win it,” Robinson said. “It’s definitely possible.”
Robinson hopes to regain his confidence coming off a recent injury.
“I’m still a little bit out of shape,” he said, “but [head coach Norm Ogilvie] thinks I can break through.”
The men have a good idea what the course will be like, as they competed in the ACC Championships at the same location in 2009.
“I [set a personal record] there last year,” Robinson said. “I figured out it was a pretty fast course, but you have to be conservative because the first mile comes out fast.”
His teammate Phil Fairleigh will compete in the meet as an individual because he is redshirting his freshman year. Still, he looks to be in the top five finishers on Friday when he participates in his first major college cross-country meet.
“I’m pretty excited for it.... In high school it’s just three miles and in college it’s a five-mile race, so it’s a different kind of thing,” Fairleigh said. “My goal is just to go out and run a good race.”
The women’s team will run at the Hagan Stone Cross Country Classic in Greensboro Saturday. Only three runners will represent Duke this weekend, while several other Blue Devils will be running as individuals, unattached to their teammates. The unattached runners will hope to improve their standing on the team by competing.
Unattached runner freshman Gabby Levac, who hopes to overcome an illness in time to race Saturday, is expected to finish in a top spot at this meet after her second-place finish at the William & Mary Invitational last weekend.
The three women officially representing the Blue Devils are seniors Katie Apibunyopas, Devotia Moore and freshman Ashley Berry.
“Our biggest goal is to keep on getting better,” Jermyn said. “We want to give each athlete a fair chance to earn a position on the ACC roster.... We can only take 10 people, so we try to set up each athlete so that by the end of October, we know if they’ve earned a spot.”
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