Men's cross country may run to nationals

After an entire season spent focusing on gaining points towards qualifying for the NCAA championship meet, the Blue Devils will head to Charlotte for the NCAA Southeast Regional. Once there, the team hopes their hard work will earn them a top-four finish.

In order to qualify for an automatic bid to the national meet, Duke will need to place in the top-two at the regional competition. Throughout the season, however, the men have faced off against nationally-ranked teams in hopes of gaining points toward at-large qualification. Due to their success at bigger meets such as the Pre-National competition in October, the runners will be less pressured to secure a top-two spot. Head coach Norm Ogilvie said the team should be able to accomplish their goal of racing at the national meet if they can place in any of the top-four spots.

“Top-four will definitely get us in,” Ogilvie said. “If we’re fifth, other things have to happen. We’ve done all the work, we feel ready and now it’s just a matter of going out there and running.”

If the Blue Devils do not reach their goal of top-four, they will have to wait to see what happens in other regions before knowing whether or not their season will continue. The Blue Devils will earn a point for every team that they beat during previous races this season that makes it to the national championships. If things work in their favor, they might be able to secure a trip to Louisville, Ky. without a top-four finish, but Ogilvie noted that the runners will be doing everything in their power to ensure it does not come to that.

For some, such as graduate student James Kostelnik and senior Mike Moverman, not performing well at the Regional meet means that Friday will be their last race as Blue Devils. That knowledge provides extra motivation for the already-driven runners, who are looking forward to today’s competition.

“The entire season’s goal race is this race. It’s exciting that it’s finally here,” Moverman said. “I’m confident that I can run fast and the team can run fast, so there’s nothing to worry about. If we weren’t prepared I’d probably be nervous, but I feel like we’re prepared.”

The Blue Devils have consistently proven that their team is in better shape this season than it was in the previous, but an off day at the ACC meet recently brought out their weaker side. In this meet, though, that type of disappointing performance is one they cannot afford.

“If we run like we ran at the Pre-National meet… we will go,” Ogilvie said. “And if we run like we did at ACC’s, we won’t.”