Duke men's cross country has opening race cut short by lightning

Three kilometers into his first cross-country race since winning the Three Stripe Invitational unattached at the beginning of last season, Shaun Thompson was holding the lead and steadily distancing himself from the pack. But the graduate student was denied his opportunity to mark his return to the Blue Devil squad with a win in their season opener.

The Hokie Invitational in Blacksburg, Va., was cut short Friday due to lightning with the lead runners halfway around the six-kilometer course. The Duke men will have to wait another week to complete their first race of the season.

Despite the disappointment of driving nearly three hours to return without results, the Blue Devils made an aggressive move toward the front of the pack—the opposite race strategy from their performances last season. The 11 harriers at the front of the pack in Friday’s race all wore Duke uniforms.

“We got out well,” Duke head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “That’s not something we did last year. We had a really good start. It was a frustrating, early end to the evening, but our guys can come away feeling really good about what they accomplished.”

Ogilvie said he had been rained out during his time in Durham, but never lightninged out.

At their three biggest races last season—the Panorama Farms Invitational in September and the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet and ACC championships in October—the Blue Devils fell into the middle of the pack from the start of the race, unable to make a move to the front with so many other runners.

But this season, Thompson will look to set the pace for the field and bring his teammates up to the front. The Baldwinsville, N.Y., native chose to sit out the 2014 season for additional training for the Olympic Trials in July. The graduate student may lead the Blue Devils back to the NCAA championships for the squad’s fourth appearance in seven years.

Thompson had distanced himself from the pack by nearly 10 seconds at the three-kilometer mark of Friday’s race but had left the rest of the Duke squad in good position to finish with a team victory. The squad’s frontrunners included seniors William Hague and Blake Udland, along with standout freshmen Stephen Garrett and Nikhil Pulimood, racing in their first six-kilometer race.

“By no means were they out at the front looking winded and just trying to hang on,” Ogilvie said. “The guys felt good. They have been training to run with Shaun like that. I think we could have been in a good spot for the win.”

The Blue Devils’ opponents included No. 19 North Carolina and Virginia Tech, ranked third and sixth in the Southeast region by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association pre-season poll. Duke enters the list ranked 11th.

Duke will have a second chance at its first race of the season at home, hosting N.C. Central in the Bull City Classic Saturday.