Led by the strong performances of junior Matt Haywood and senior Miles Hall, the men's track team had one of its most successful meets ever at the Raleigh Relays this weekend.
Haywood and Hall each qualified for the Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association of America (IC4A) meet next month, and they both contributed to Duke's fifth-place performance in the 4x1,500-meter relay. Overall, the Blue Devils had five IC4A qualifiers over the weekend.
The 4x1,500-meter squad finished in 15:46.50, the third fastest time in Duke history. Haywood led off the race with a personal best time of 4:00.7, and junior Danny Schuman followed with a 3:59.2 leg, which also was his fastest time ever. Senior Doug Kling then ran a solid 3:56.9 to put Duke in a close battle with St. John's for fourth place.
Hall then took the baton, and he engaged in a tight battle with Red Storm runner Chris Fograzzo, who is one of the East Coast's top milers. Fograzzo edged out Hall at the end, but the Duke senior still finished the race in a seasonal-best time of 3:49.4, a second faster than the time which he ran when he won last spring's Atlantic Coast Conference title.
On Saturday, Haywood came back and ran the steeplechase, an event at which he had never before competed. The steeplechase is usually a difficult race for runners to pick up since it involves jumping over barriers and over water. But Haywood seemed comfortable with the event, as he finished in 9:16.6, beating the IC4A qualifying mark by four-tenths of a second.
"Usually people sort of just try to survive their first one," assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said. "Matt ran with a lot of confidence, though. He came out of it and said it was the most fun race he had ever run. That's the sign of a great steeplechaser."
Earlier on Saturday, Hall qualified for the IC4A with his 3:50.3 showing in the open 1,500 meters. Hall's times are about two seconds ahead of where he was at this point in the season a year ago.
"There was a very crowded field with a lot of jostling," Ogilvie said. "Miles probably ran better than in his race on Friday."
The Blue Devils' first two IC4A qualifiers of the weekend came on Friday night in the 10,000 meters. Juniors Darin Mellinger and Brett Marcus each obliterated their previous personal best marks in the event by over a minute to place fourth and sixth, respectively. Mellinger and Marcus worked together for most of the race, but Mellinger broke ahead in the final 800 meters to finish in 30:59.9. Marcus crossed the finish line in 31:03.9, 11 seconds ahead of the required time to qualify for the IC4As.
"It was a super breakthrough for both of them," Ogilvie said.
Junior Chris Malfant also competed in the event, finishing a minute and a half faster than his previous best time in the 10,000 meters. Malfant's 32:31.7 showing was good for 17th.
On Saturday, sophomore Rob West, who qualified for the IC4A in the decathlon last weekend, earned the right to compete in an 11th event at the May meet in College Park, Md., by throwing the javelin 186-10. West's personal best throw earned him seventh place.
A sixth Duke athlete, senior Doug Kling, was on pace to qualify for the IC4A meet this weekend. But after challenging for the lead in a strong field with his 52-second quarter mile, Kling was knocked down by a runner behind him. Although Kling finished the race, the fall cost him several seconds.
The Blue Devils' 4x800 meter relay squad won its heat in 7:49.1 on Saturday afternoon. Schuman, freshman Jesse Allen and sophomores Jeremy Walker and Mark Simmons comprised the Duke squad.
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