RALEIGH-The women's track and field team took advantage of a meet specifically designed with a majority of relay races to break three school records at the Raleigh Relays this past weekend.
On Friday afternoon, the 4x1,500-meter relay team of seniors Betsy Keever and Liz Hanly and sophomores Collette Gurtler and Claire Butler broke the old record by 18 seconds with its time of 18:48. Keever led the team off with a split of 4:39.7. Hanly then finished with the team's fastest split in 4:39.1. Both she and Gurtler, who ran a 4:42, ran their personal bests in the 1,500. Butler then anchored the team in 4:47.2.
Three out of these four athletes then came back the next day to shatter the 4x800-meter relay record by over 19 seconds, a substantial amount of time for a race of this length. Their time of 8:56.36 easily broke the old mark of 9:15.54.
Gurtler started the team off with a 2:14.7 split, and Hanly followed up in 2:15.9. Sophomore Kim Voyticky-who won the 800 meters during her school-record breaking heptathlon performance just two days earlier at the Florida Coca-Cola Relays-ran the team's third leg in 2:14.6. These three runners kept Duke within the top four throughout the entire race, but Keever was the catalyst that made assistant coach Scott Yakola call the 4x800-meter relay the most exciting race of the meet by far.
Keever finished in an amazing 2:10.6 to pull the Blue Devils within a tenth of a second of winning the race. Boston College finished in 8:56.26 to barely edge Duke.
"Boston College won the 4x1,500 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation in the distance medley relay indoors, but we took them to the line," Yakola said. "Betsy passed two other teams and she and the girl from BC fought it out at the end."
In addition, Keever's 2:10.6 was not only the fastest 800-meter split of the day, it was also the fastest of the entire weekend, even beating the winner's time in the open 800. The time was also the fastest in Duke history, demolishing the old mark of 2:13.99. Because it was a relay race, however, the time cannot count as a school record.
"I wasn't psyched about how I ran Friday [in the 4x1,500], so on Saturday, I told myself to relax and just run," Keever said. "It was exciting because we were near the front during the entire race, and now we know we can run with anybody."
The 4x200-meter relay set a new school record as well, eclipsing the old mark by almost three seconds in 1:45.25. Freshman Tara Cyre started the race off with her split of 26.8 and was followed by sophomore Kim Hay in 26.3. Freshman Stephanie Thomas ran the fastest split in 25.1, and junior Kirsten Johnson anchored the group in 26.3.
"The three relays were phenomenal," Yakola said. "I'm beside myself and I think they're still in shock themselves."
Several other members of the team set personal bests in their respective races. Johnson ran a 64.61 in the 400-meter hurdles, freshman Kelley Martens ran a 60.36 in the open 400 meters, and sophomore Erin Fleming finished the 10,000 meters in a personal best 36:40.48.
"This was a breakthrough type of meet for our team," Yakola said. "We took our first step towards running at our potential. It's exciting to be at practice and come to meets when you have a team like this."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.