Duke opened the season Saturday with decisive victories against both the men’s and women’s teams of city foe N.C. Central in the Bull City Classic.
Saturday’s race marked the second and final time the two programs will meet in Wallace Wade Stadium but was the fifth consecutive duel meet between the Blue Devils and the Eagles on both teams’ daily training trails.
“This is a great way for us to open up the season and be in partnership with N.C. Central,” men’s head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “This weekend is a celebration of Durham.”
With Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” playing in the background and football fans cheering, the men and women started just a minute apart. Both races were close for the lap around the track in the stadium, but Duke soon distanced itself from N.C. Central as the runners made their way to the finish in the Sally Meyerhoff Fitness Loop.
Junior Abby Farley finished first on the women’s side, leading the way into the loop and turning in a time of 15:08 for the 4,000-meter in her first overall victory as a Blue Devil.
“This is definitely a longer distance for me,” Farley said. “I’m more of a mid-distance runner, but this is really exciting. I’m excited about our season. We have a great chance to do well.”
Freshman Grace Chang, senior Dana Morin and junior Colleen Schmidt all finished within 22 seconds of Farley before the first Eagle, Amber Brooks crossed the finish line in fifth. Freshman Gina Daniel rounded out the Duke field in sixth place. With the top four finishes and a sixth place finish, Duke racked up just 16 points as opposed to N.C. Central’s 39, pulling out a comfortable victory.
“This was a solid, hard effort,” women’s head coach Kevin Jermyn said. “We aren’t at that point in the year when we are race-ready. We are ge aring up their training to be ready for a full-race effort and using each other to get mentally and physically ready.”
On the men’s side, freshman Stephen Shine led the parade of the six Blue Devils across the finish line, completing the 6,000-meter run in 19:11 for his first collegiate win as well.
“We knew Stephen was a talented guy with really good high-school credentials,” Ogilvie said. “He showed that talent counts for a lot.”
Sophomores William Hague and William Rooney followed shortly behind, turning in times of 19:15 and 19:27, respectively, and sophomore Blake Udland and freshman Weston Carvalho claimed the two remaining scoring positions for Duke.
Freshman Aaron Liberatore crossed the finish line sixth, more than a minute before Gregory Coward of N.C. Central finished. Liberatore’s score did not count, but the men’s team shut out the Eagles with a final score of 15-45.
“The shutout was certainly the goal in this dual meet,” Ogilvie said. “It’s a good indication that we are about where we thought we were. We just want to keep training hard.”
The home trails and cheering crowd made this meet an excellent transition from the preseason to the regular season.
The rest of the meets this season will take place away. The men’s team will head to Furman on September 14 next, and the women will compete in the Adidas Challenge on September 20.
“Ultimately, we need to get going with some more competitive races in the month ahead, but there’s lots of time left,” Jermyn said. “It’s a patient path to the ACC Championship.”
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