The football team will not be the only Blue Devil squad taking on N.C. Central this weekend. After a one-year hiatus for the completion of the new track and field complex, Duke returns its traditional early season dual meet with the Eagles to the schedule.
The Blue Devils will host N.C. Central Saturday in the Bull City Classic, starting the race at 9 a.m. with a lap around the track of the Morris Williams Track & Field Stadium before the runners head to the Al Buehler Trail around the Washington Duke Inn.
Duke will look to use this meet to get the season off on the right foot after its season openers did not quite go according to plan.
N.C. Central was unable to attend the Duke Alumni Meet Sept. 1, but the Blue Devil women still toed the line and tallied a friendly win against six returning alumni. The men ran to the three-kilometer mark of the six-kilometer race at the Hokie Invitational Sept. 4 but were ushered off the course due to lightning for the first time in head coach Norm Ogilvie’s tenure.
Despite these setbacks, the team’s plan for this weekend remains the same.
“We will get a chance to see some guys who weren’t quite ready to race last week,” Ogilvie said. “And we’ll see some of the same guys who were at the back of that lead group [last week].”
At the Hokie Invitational, graduate student Shaun Thompson led 11 Duke runners to the front of the pack before distancing himself from the group and leaving seniors Blake Udland and William Hague to pace the group to the finish line. Ogilvie—looking to solidify a seven-man scoring roster and a group of alternates—was not able to narrow down the final spots with the majority of his squad in step when the race was called. The Blue Devils will enter a handful of runners who fell back of their teammates in Blacksburg, Va., to decide who will travel to Princeton, N.J., for the Princeton Invitational Oct. 3.
Without entering the full roster on Saturday, some Duke harriers will head into the season’s upcoming eight-kilometer races without a six-kilometer warm-up meet behind them.
On the women’s side, the Blue Devils will look to build on their season-opening performances from the Alumni Meet.
“[That race] was definitely a rust-buster,” women’s head coach Christine Engel said. “The majority of these girls hadn’t raced since May, so it was good to get an effort in, especially at home. We are hoping to gain momentum with each race and each week of training.”
With a roster dominated by rookies, a second race at home will help the young women’s squad ease into the season before they make a short trip to Cary, N.C., for the adidas Cross-Country Challenge Sept. 18.
Duke did not hold the Bull City Classic last season but had a five-year winning streak against the Eagles on both sides leading up to the interruption, with the men sweeping the top five scoring spots for five consecutive years. The men and women will look to continue the streak Saturday, and finally kick off the 2015 season with a victory.
In years past, the Bull City Classic began with a lap around the track at Wallace Wade Stadium just prior to kickoff between the Blue Devils and Eagles. After the track was ripped out in the offseason as part of stadium renovations, the course will have a new look in 2015.
"It was cool to start it inside the stadium because we could easily say we had the largest crowd at a cross-country meet," Thompson said. "The track stadium that we've got because we had to leave the football stadium is beautiful. It's a little bittersweet to not be in that stadium with the football crowd, but we have our beautiful brand new facility."
Ryan Hoerger contributed reporting.
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