RALEIGH—Heading into his final outdoor season as a Blue Devil, Shaun Thompson thought that the 10,000 meters would be his best bet for the Olympic Trials. But the graduate student had never run that distance on a track until Friday.
He might have been right.
Leading the way for Duke at the Raleigh Relays at N.C. State’s Dail Soccer Field and Track Complex and Paul Derr Track Friday and Saturday, Thompson posted the second-fastest time in the nation so far this season for the 25-lap race, validating his preseason prediction. The Baldwinsville, N.Y., native finished second in 29:02.18 after battling with Jacob Thomson of Kentucky for the win down the final stretch. The Wildcat harrier finished in 29:01.34.
“I was pleased with 29-flat—it’s a good time,” Thompson said. “This is only the second week of the outdoor season and a lot of the big meets haven’t happened yet, but looking at the times from last year, this time would be in the top 20 or so nationally. Talking with Jacob, we both plan on running 10Ks in a couple of weeks and lowering the time even further.”
Accustomed to using the changing scenery of the cross country course to plan when to make a move for the lead, Thompson had to take a different strategy for his first 10-kilometer race with the same landmarks every 400 meters. Although he said he finds it easier to maintain his focus in a cross country race, the graduate student adapted well to the continuous series of left turns.
Thompson started the race off with a steady pace, recording a split of 9:26 for the first two miles. But after nine more laps, it did not look like he would achieve his goal time of 29 minutes as clock showed 20:02 with eight laps to go. Thompson would have to turn in a time of nine minutes for the final two miles.
“I knew he was ready to run roughly 29 minutes based on a workout we did nine days before with the 10K split into smaller parts. With eight laps to go…I was thinking, ‘Well, this may not happen,'" Duke director of track and field Norm Ogilvie said.
But not only did Thompson run exactly nine minutes for his last eight laps, his last quarter-mile split was 60 seconds—four-minute mile pace.
The Olympic Trials will remain on his mind until July, but the Blue Devil distance specialist has a more immediate goal to shoot for—breaking Robbie Perkin’s 30-year-old record of 28:56.80.
“[That record] has been one of the goals that I set for myself about a year and a half ago when I decided that I would stay another year,” Thompson said. “I definitely think I’m going to be able to get it. I was much more cautious with this race because it was my first one, but next time I will be more aggressive.”
Duke recorded 19 total top-five finishes in its outdoor season opener, earning seven on the track and 12 in the field events.
Sophomore Maddy Price highlighted the women’s performances Friday with a new school record in the 100-meter dash. The Hillsborough, Calif., native qualified for the Saturday finals with a time of 11.65 seconds in the preliminaries, shaving nearly two-tenths of a second off Lauren Hansson’s mark of 11.83. Price finished faster than Hansson’s time again Saturday to claim fourth in 11.81 seconds.
The sprinter also finished third in the 200-yard dash with a time of 23.99 seconds Saturday, moving up to fifth on Duke’s all-time list.
Sophomore Madison Heath led a trio of Blue Devils in the women’s pole vault, claiming the win in a tight contest against her teammate, senior Megan Clark. The two 2015 outdoor NCAA championship qualifiers cleared 14 feet, 1 1/4 inches, but fewer misses at lower heights gave Heath the win and a new career best. Freshman Nati Sheppard rounded out the group with a fifth-place finish after a clearance of 12 feet, 5 1/2 inches.
Adding a pair of runner-up finishes in both hurdle events Saturday, redshirt senior Teddi Maslowski clocked in at 13.65 seconds in the 100 meters and 1:00.71 in the 400 meters. The Burgettstown, Pa., native holds the program records for both distances.
On the men’s side, the Blue Devils shined in the throwing events.
In his 2016 debut, redshirt senior Thomas Lang hurled the javelin 214 feet, 10 inches for third, leading the charge for three Duke athletes in the top 10. Freshman Nicholas Solfanelli took eighth with a mark of 183 feet, 4 inches and sophomore Travis Closs was 10th at 177 feet, 7 inches.
Lang’s classmate Stephen Boals notched two top-three performances at the meet, kicking off his outdoor season with a mark of 168 feet, 10 inches in the discus for third Friday. The Loomis, Calif., native was the top collegiate performer in his signature shot put Saturday, throwing the implement 57 feet, 5 1/2 inches. He was only outdone by Yao Adantor of ConnQuest, whose toss sailed just 1 1/2 inches farther.
Sophomores Colt Sessions and Andrew Pancoast provided the finals highlights for the Blue Devils in the field events by claiming the top two spots in the high jump. Sessions earned the first win of his collegiate career with a clearance of 6 feet, 9 inches, and Pancoast took second with 6 feet, 8 inches in his first competition since having an extra bone removed from his foot.
The Duke men secured the team’s lone win on the track in the 4-x-1,500-meter relay. Kyle Francis, Jordan Burton, Stephen Shine and Alec Kunzweiler were evenly matched with Michigan State’s top squad through the first 5,900 yards, but Kunzweiler had the strongest final kick of the field and pulled away for the win and a final time of 15:39.79. The Spartans took second in 15:40.68.
“We had owned that event at the Raleigh Relays for years in a row, and last year we got second," Ogilvie said. "We wanted to get back to our winning ways, and we did that in a really great team battle with Michigan State that went right down to the wire. It was a thrilling race—one of those constant back-and-forth races—and a really good win for our team.”
This story was updated at 3:20 p.m. to include Ogilvie's comments.
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