A trio of Blue Devils highlighted a successful weekend at the ACC outdoor championships, earning individual titles in javelin, shot put and high jump.
Six more Duke athletes also earned All-ACC honors with top-three finishes in their respective events in Charlottesville, Va. The Blue Devil women tied for fourth place with Virginia Tech with 74 points—one point shy of third place, which would have represented their highest finish in program history. The men tied for sixth place with 59 points.
The women got off to a strong start Thursday as junior Carly Seymour earned a third-place finish in the 10,000m with a time of 33:55.53. Seymour finished just ahead of her teammate and defending NCAA champion Juliet Bottorff, who crossed the line in sixth place.
The next athletes to take top-three spots were juniors Shannon Sullivan and Andrea Hopkins, who took first and second in the javelin, respectively. Sullivan’s throw of 48.51m put her almost four meters ahead of the rest of the competition.
The success in the field continued during Friday’s events, when sophomore Michelle Anumba returned after a fourth-place finish in the hammer throw to win the shot put by breaking her school record in the event with her first throw of 17.18m.
“I was really nervous [for the shot put],” Anumba said, “But I guess the nerves helped… me a little. I was more relaxed when I did it and more confident. Everything pretty much came together.”
Duke continued to earn points in the field throughout the final day of the meet as Erica Brand repeated her success from the last year’s ACC outdoor championships by taking second in the discus with her throw of 52.45m.
On the men’s side, sophomores Michael Krone and Tanner Anderson mirrored Sullivan and Hopkins by taking the top spots with their successful high jump performances. Krone exhibited an especially strong set of jumps on his way to take the title, setting three successive personal records. Director of Track and Field Norm Ogilvie said the sophomores’ success is especially notable considering the relatively little amount of ACC outdoor championships experience they have had.
“Generally the upperclassmen did really well, but if you look at the sophomores and the juniors they didn’t quite have career-type days,” Ogilvie said. “But there were exceptions. Tanner Anderson and Michael Krone were two sophomores that beat everybody and performed on a national level.”
The two sophomores were not the only ones competing well under pressure. Curtis Beach’s performance in the decathlon led him to a score of 7,764 and the second-place spot. Beach finished behind Florida State senior Gonzalo Barroilhet, who took the title with a score of 8,065 and set an ACC outdoor championships record.
The last All-ACC performance came from senior Michael Barbas in the shot put. His throw of 18.03m was good for second place and in addition to Krone and Anderson’s performance in the high jump allowed the Blue Devils to end the ACC outdoor championships on a high note.
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