After winning the Three Stripe Invitational, Duke will send a handful of athletes to Louisville, Ky., for one more cross country race before turning the team’s attention to the indoor track season.
Seven Blue Devils will represent Duke at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships Friday. Competing on both the men’s and women’s sides without a full roster, the Blue Devils will not score in the team competition but hope to give a few athletes experience in a longer distance race.
For seniors Brian Schoepfer and Phil Fairleigh and juniors William Hague and Blake Udland, Friday’s 10,000-meter race will be the first of their careers.
“It’s a learning experience for all four of our guys,” director of track and field Norm Ogilvie said. “And for the seniors, this will be their last cross country race in a Duke uniform. All four of them have a lot to run for, so I think they will all be pretty motivated.”
All four harriers recorded personal-best or course-best times at the ACC Championships in Charlottesville, Va., Oct. 31. Ogilvie expects strong results from the group in their first attempt at the longer distance.
The women’s squad will send its top-three scoring athletes from the conference meet to compete in Louisville—graduate student Jesse Rubin and sophomores Haley and Hannah Meier. The three Blue Devils hope to finish in the top 25 Friday to earn All-Region honors.
Of the 15 teams in the Southeast region, ACC competitors hold the top four spots on the women’s side according to the most recent U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coach Association poll. North Carolina is favored to win Friday’s team title. Although Duke will not be competing in the team competition, it will be difficult for three Blue Devils to finish at the top of the conference individually with Virginia, N.C. State and Virginia Tech entering full rosters to challenge the Tar Heels for the victory.
Despite the fact they will not be competing as a full team, the Blue Devils are still confident they can make some noise in this weekend's race.
"[Our runners] all have the potential to be All-Region,” women’s head coach Christine Engel said. “The ideal is to have them all set a [personal record]. Training has been going exceptionally well, so we are looking forward to them representing our program in a strong fashion.”
Rubin, Duke’s top finisher at the ACC Championships, hopes to have the best race of her collegiate cross country career. Crossing the line in 48th at the regional championships last season—her only race in 2013—the graduate student has dedicated this season’s training to improving on that performance.
“She has a lot of expectations for herself going into it and she has a lot of motivation,” Engel said.
The Meier twins both competed in the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships in 2013. Hannah Meier placed 28th overall for the 6,000-meter race, as Duke’s third runner across the line behind Juliet Bottorff and Carolyn Baskir. Haley Meier concluded her first collegiate cross country season with a 47th-place finish last year.
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