Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams will travel Saturday to McAlpine Creek Park in Charlotte, N.C., for the Royals Challenge. Duke will try to replicate the success it had in last year’s race, as the men dominated the field and the women took home second.
This year, the meet comes at a crucial time for the Blue Devils – it serves as the final opportunity for runners on both teams to earn the opportunity to participate in two important upcoming meets. For the women, this next meet is the Wisconsin adidas Invitational, which will be held in Madison, Wis., Friday, Oct. 17. For the men, a trip to Terre Haute, Ind., for NCAA Pre-Nationals is on the line.
In preparation for Saturday, first-year women’s head coach Christine Engel has tried to help the team learn from its first two races—Virginia Duals and the Battle in Beantown—in which several runners wore themselves out early due to an uncharacteristically fast start.
“I think we did some things really well in those races,” Engel said. “But one of the things we really need to work on from the first race to the second race is our one-to-five gap – it’s a lot more significant than it should be.... Some of the girls went out very, very aggressively in the race, and while I appreciate that, at that point in the season it was a little more aggressive than they were ready for.”
Some of the top Duke runners on the women’s side won’t run Saturday in preparation for Wisconsin. This will provide an opportunity for other runners to contribute for the Blue Devils and potentially secure a slot in next Friday’s race.
“We’re not going to race our entire squad; we’re not going to race our top 6 girls from Boston,” Engel said. “But this will be a great opportunity for quite a few of the girls who haven’t raced since Virginia. It will be a good indication of their development and progression and improvement over the last few weeks.”
Junior Madison Granger will be one runner to watch. The Belchertown, Mass., native is returning from an injury and will run in her first meet of the season Saturday. Another junior, Olivia Anderson, finished seventh for the team in Boston and will also be aiming for a strong showing. Freshmen runners Callie Wynn and Paige Rice have the opportunity for a breakout race.
“We talk about doing something better each day, and I really have seen that in the past few weeks,” Engel said. “We’re definitely coming into form. October is a big month and we’re really feeling like things are headed in the right direction.”
The story is similar on the men’s side. Despite a somewhat disappointing performance at the very competitive Panorama Farms Invitational in Charlottesville, Va., the Blue Devils are in good position to defend their title Saturday on the flat, fast Charlotte course. The bigger story for this meet, however, is that it is the final opportunity for the Duke men outside of the top six to earn spots in the NCAA Pre-Nationals race.
Based on achievement so far this season, six runners have already locked up slots for Pre-Nationals. Joining these six will be four other runners, the selection of whom will be based on the results of the Royals Challenge this weekend.
One runner looking to secure his trip to Terre Haute, Ind., is junior William Hague, who has been kept out of competition so far this season by a knee injury.
“I probably could have raced at Virginia but played it safe to make sure my body was at 100%,” he said. “The Royals Challenge will be my first race this season and I'm feeling pretty confident given all the training behind me.”
The Winnetka, Ill., native has been eagerly anticipating his return to competition for the Blue Devils.
“This is my first cross country race in over a year due to injury so this race is something that is very special to me and is something I have been thinking about for a while," Hague said. "Over the past year I have been working for this moment to put on the Duke jersey again and to do so healthy and in great shape.”
Other Blue Devils competing for one of the final four spots are junior Eddie Merenda, graduate student Max Robinson, sophomores Weston Carvalho and Alec Kunzweiler, and freshman Josiah Henko.
Running unattached in the race is Shaun Thompson, who was consistently one of the team’s fastest runners last season when he competed as a junior. Thompson is currently redshirting and will return to compete for the Blue Devils next season.
The women’s race will begin Saturday morning, at 11:00 am and the men will run at 11:30.
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