Competing in the Lynchburg Track Classic at Lynchburg College in Virginia this weekend, the men's track team posted an impressive effort, setting a series of season and personal bests.
Duke's most impressive outing was in the 800-meter run, where the Blue Devils captured first and second places. In a close race in which many of the runners were huddled in a tight pack, Blue Devils Doug Kling and Miles Hall pulled away from the rest.
"Coming around the penultimate turn, they [Kling and Hall] exploded like they were shot out of a cannon," assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said.
Kling won the race with a personal best time of 1:54.40, with teammate Hall finishing right behind him in 1:55.62. What was especially impressive was that both runners clocked better splits towards the end of the race than at the start.
Junior Conrad Hall had a successful meet competing in a "double" of the 1,500 and 800-meter events. Hall ran the 1,500 in 4:02.66 for sixth place, and ran a 1:59.45 in the 800.
"From his times this weekend, it is evident that he [Hall] is in pretty good shape, and will compete in the same double this week," Ogilvie said.
Michael Coles, a sophomore, competed in four events this weekend. In the 200 meters, Coles ran the preliminaries in a time of 22.50 and set a season best in the finals, placing third with a 22.40 time. In the 4x100 relay, Coles, along with freshmen Rob Simler, Jeff Smith and Gregg Wilkerson ran the race in a time of 44.7.
The Duke squad of Coles, Kling, Hall and Wilkerson finished fourth overall in the 4x400 relay with a tine of 3:26. The team set a season-best by seven seconds. Kling and Hall each ran the fastest split in a time of 51.2 seconds.
On Friday, in the distance competition, senior Mark Donahue placed second in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:06. In the 10,000 meters Duke placed both the second and third place runners. Senior Howard Feingold's time of 33:31.1, a personal best and only six seconds off of the winning time, was good for runner-up and sophomore Zach Miller finished third with a time of 33:58.8.
Ogilvie said that the 10,000 was a competitive effort with Feingold challenging for first place throughout the race. He was pleased with both Feingold's and Miller's efforts.
"It was a good warm-up for this weekend's Duke Invitational," Ogilvie said. "We intend to train hard and peak in time for the Duke Invitational and the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships where we will be competing against some of the very best in the nation."
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