Although conditions were windy, and at times, wet, the weather seemed to have little effect on the men's track and field team at the Raleigh Relays this past weekend held at N.C. State.
The Blue Devils had two individual runners and a relay team qualify for the IC4A outdoor meet over the weekend. The first two athletes to qualify did so Friday evening in the 10,000 meters. In his first-ever 10,000, sophomore Tom Becker participated in the invitational heat of the event, and finished in the sixth-fastest time in Duke history, running a 30:39.49 in a very competitive field. His time was the third-fastest run in the Atlantic Coast Conference so far this season.
"Tom ran a very, very nice 10,000," assistant coach Norm Ogilvie said. "To run under 31 minutes in his first time running the event-we were very pleased."
In the slower heat of the event, senior Darin Mellinger qualified for IC4As for the second-straight year by leading the race from the gun to the finish, winning in a time of 31:05.98. The time is the fourth-fastest in the ACC.
Also on Friday, sophomore Jesse Allen was second overall in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 51.83. His time was a full second faster than he had run in his last meet, and Allen was only eight-hundredths of a second behind the winner of the race.
"[Allen] looked good and closed the gap to almost win it," Ogilvie said.
In another individual event, freshman Brian McCulley was chosen to run in the invitational section of the 800 meters, and although he ran the first quarter conservatively in 57 seconds, he finished the second lap in the same time to finish the race in 1:54.07. McCulley ran against several national class runners, including Olympic trial finalists.
Because McCulley ran the open 800, he did not run on the 4x800-meter relay team. Freshman Kyle Leonard led off with a 1:54.6 split and junior Jeremy Walker followed with a 1:56 leg. Allen then ran a 1:54.5 and junior Mike Park anchored in 1:53.6. The team ran a 7:39 overall, five seconds slower than the previous weekend, but also facing windier conditions. Although the coaches did not stack the team with its best runners, the foursome finished in fifth place behind several quality teams.
McCulley did return for the 4x400-meter relay, however. Allen, Walker and McCulley each ran 49-second splits, and freshman Matt Diglio finished in 48.7 to lead the group to a 3:17.41 finish, six-tenths of a second under the IC4A qualifying time in the event. Although the group was only 15th out of 36 teams, the Blue Devils were second in their heat. In his leg, McCulley ran against 110-meter hurdler and Olympic gold-medalist Allen Johnson, and was able to make up ground on the world-class athlete.
In the steeplechase, senior Matt Haywood finished in 9:29, and should be a contender in the event at the ACC meet. Haywood was the third-fastest conference finisher in the event. Anchoring the 4x1,500-meter relay team, which Haywood was also a part of, senior Danny Schuman ran a personal best split of 3:54.9, four seconds faster than he had ever run. Schuman's time was surprising considering he had taken three days off from training due to a minor injury.
"Things are definitely progressing for the team," Haywood said. "Competition [at the Raleigh Relays] was good and we worked hard for everything we got. This meet gives us a realistic view of what we have to do for the rest of the season."
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