CARY, N.C. — The cold wind and rain were no match for the Duke cross country teams this past weekend as the Blue Devils swept the Pack Invitational.
With both teams leading their respective races, the Duke men and women surged uphill to the finish, decisively taking the team and individual titles. For the all the runners on Saturday, the race presented a double challenge. They were not only battling their competition, but also overcoming the wintry conditions on a hilly course. Even with the added obstacle, the Blue Devils still managed to pull off an impressive performance.
“I was very, very pleased with the effort today,” men’s head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “We’ve been trying to get the top guys to think that way, that they have to go after the clock as much as possible, and they did that.”
Ogilvie commended sophomore Domenick DeMatteo, who became the first Duke man to break 15 minutes at the Invitational, for his impressive performance. His teammate Bryan Atkinson, a freshman who previously held the high-school record for the course, and sophomores Mike Moverman and Dominick Robinson also had solid races as they rounded out Duke’s top four for the meet.
“These are the guys who came just short of making the regional meet,” Ogilvie said, in reference to the runners who raced this past Saturday. “The most important thing about this whole group is that next year, they’re the nucleus of the team, since five of our top seven are seniors. They’re the future of Duke cross country.”
The Blue Devil women also overcame the trying conditions to complete the Duke sweep as they beat Elon and N.C. State for the win. With graduate student Laura Paulsen, who ran unattached, crossing the finish line first, and senior Kristina Krasich coming in just one second behind her, the Blue Devils managed to take seven of the top ten spots.
“We’re really excited about the way the girls performed, our top two finishers finished around the best time we’ve ever had on this course,” women’s assistant coach Liz Wort said. “We were really trying to find an alternate to go to the regional meet, and I think Kristina Krasich will be the one.”
Paulsen and Krasich said that their primary goal during the race had been simply to improve their times. Other Duke women, including seniors Devotia Moore and Katie Apibunyopas also improved to set personal records at the Pack Invititational. Despite minimizing their focus on beating the competition and making the race more of a personal evaluation, the Blue Devils’ improvements were enough to win them the meet.
“Its always nice to get out there and go race,” Krasich said, “It was a fun day, minus the cold.”
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