The Blue Devil men finished just ahead of the rain this past Friday as they took the title at the Great American Cross Country Festival for the third straight year.
After injuries and sickness led to a disappointing showing at the Griak Invitational, this past weekend’s success proved to be a boost for morale. The team took the win with just 30 seconds separating its top-five runners, each of whom took a top-ten spot. Several runners also posted personal records on Friday, including junior Joseph Elsakr and sophomore Christian Britto, who took first and second for the Blue Devils, respectively, as well as sophomore Lucas Talavan-Becker who was redshirted for the meet.
Elsakr, who crossed the finish line third overall with a time of 25:16.3, was closely followed by Christian Britto, Phil Farleigh, Nate McClafferty, and Brendan Pierson, all of whom finished within the same minute.
Talavan-Becker, who was not on the official Duke roster due to previous injury, ran the best race of his career to finish second overall. After his stellar performance and obvious recovery, Talavan-Becker will re-join the team roster for the next meet in Virginia.
“Our expectation heading in was to win the meet and see where everybody was,” head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “Lucas…has never broken 25 minutes before, so we’re delighted. His redshirt comes off…. And then Joey ran great…the improvement he’s made is phenomenal. This is a great confidence builder.”
Though the group that ran at Great American was very different from the one that raced at Griak, Ogilvie and his runners cited this success as motivation for both groups. The two will be competing together in Virginia as eight men from the Great American group join the eight finishers from Griak in two weeks. After this win, both squads are feeling a lot better about where they stand.
“We definitely wanted to win since we’ve won for the past two years,” Elsakr said. “[The win] shows me that training has been working. I’m just happy that I’m where I want to be at this point in the season.”
While the men exceeded expectations in Cary, the women fell short in Pennsylvania.
No. 9 Duke, who was led once again by senior Suejin Ahn, faced stiff competition from the seven other nationally ranked teams at the Paul Short Invitational. Duke was able to finish in front of No. 15 North Carolina, but fell behind several other opponents for a disappointing 11th place finish.
For five of the Blue Devil women who raced at Pennsylvania, Friday’s race was their first attempt at the 6km distance. Four out of these five were freshmen Julianna Miller, Lindsey Oliver, Colleen Schmidt, and Cloe Maleski who hoped to gain experience from racing in a high-level meet. Sophomore Rebecca Craigie, who had competed at this distance only once before, was also looking to gain some experience but struggled to finish the race due to dehydration. Only Ahn, junior Madeline Morgan and senior Esther Vermeer were able to place in one of the top one hundred spots.
“We’re still trying to get fit,” coach Kevin Jermyn said. “Some of the girls weren’t able to perform well, illnesses were probably a big part of that…. For our top three, I think that they’re in the best shape of their lives, and are ready to lead our team to great things in November. They’re right on target.”
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