Two years ago, graduate student Shaun Thompson made a bold move midway through the conference championship race, pulling out in front of the field and forcing his competitors to try to run him down. Only three harriers were able to close the gap and pass the Baldwinsville, N.Y., native, but he finished just one place short of the podium in the 2013 ACC Championships.
Thompson and the Blue Devils will head to Tallahassee, Fla., Friday morning for the conference championships, with hopes of improving on previous performances and increasing their chances of a trip to Louisville, Ky., for the NCAA Championships. The Duke men finished 12th overall in team standings without Thompson on the roster last season, and the women took 10th out of 15.
“Right now Flotrack.org has six ACC teams going to the national championships, and they have Duke as the first team out," Duke men’s head coach Norm Ogilvie said. "We are truly a bubble team and have to beat one of the teams above us to help our cause.”
The Blue Devils will look to their captains—Thompson and senior Blake Udland—to lead the squad’s five scoring runners across the line in the top 30. The standout graduate will aim to earn his spot on the podium, and Thompson has already faced one of the ACC’s best in Virginia Tech’s Thomas Curtin.
In the 2013 ACC Championships, Curtin was one of the few to pass Thompson along the back half of the course, earning the silver medal for his efforts. Like Thompson, Curtin redshirted the 2014 season, but for persistent foot problems. The pair have squared off twice so far this season, with Thompson claiming the individual win at the Princeton Invitational Oct. 3 and Curtin claiming the individual title at the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet Oct. 17, crossing the line 11 seconds ahead of Thompson, who finished seventh.
“Thomas figured the only way to beat Shaun was to use Shaun’s own strategy against him by going hard from the get-go,” Ogilvie said. “Credit to Curtin for the great race that he ran. I don’t think Thomas Curtin is going to take Shaun lightly, and Shaun is certainly not going to take Thomas Curtin lightly.”
Udland hopes to finish in the top 21 Friday, which would earn him All-ACC honors for the first time in his collegiate career.
Ogilvie is optimistic that three more Blue Devils will keep pace with Udland to finish ahead of the pack and give Duke key points toward the team goal of outscoring ranked opponents. The Blue Devils increase their chances of earning an at-large bid to the national championships with every ranked opponent they beat.
The women’s squad will enter Friday’s race with good momentum from the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet, at which all seven Duke harriers clocked a six-kilometer personal-best.
Captains Madison Granger and Anima Banks have consistently been two of the top three Blue Devils across the line this season and will look to lead the team's four freshmen through their first championship meet and up the conference rankings.
“Anima and Madison have done a great job not just on race day but in practice every day, showing [the freshmen] that we are a process-oriented team,” women’s head coach Christine Engel said. “And the freshmen have done a great job of emulating that culture that they have helped create.”
Sheridan Wilbur has recorded three personal-bests in her debut season for the Blue Devils, proving herself as another consistent top-three performer for the squad. But Engel has focused on the importance of position in the race rather than the final time for Wilbur and the three other freshman in Duke’s scoring seven—Liz Lansing, Gabrielle Richichi and Kim Hallowes.
“They executed the race really well two weeks ago. But in a championship race like Friday, it’s much less about time than it is about position,” Engel said. “We have definitely talked more about being in the right position within the race to score.”
The women’s six-kilometer race is slated to start at 9:45 a.m., and the start of the men’s eight kilometers is slated for 9 a.m.
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