A torrential downpour cut several events short at the General Motors-Duke Invitational track and field meet, but there was no rain on the Blue Devils' parade.
"It was a great meet for Duke," said associate men's coach Norm Ogilvie. "We had personal records for virtually every person on the team."
One of the few Duke athletes not to set a personal best, Jillian Schwartz, was the only Blue Devil to win her event outright. Schwartz cleared 12' 3" Friday night with plenty of room to spare, setting a Duke Invitational record in the process.
On her third attempt at 12' 11", which would have been a personal best, Schwartz cleared the bar with her body but knocked it with her hand on her way down.
While Schwartz was vaulting, the men's distance medley relay team turned in another one of Duke's best performances, finishing second overall and first among collegiate competitors in 9:42.31. Spurred by superior performances like Brendan Fitzgibbon's 2:53.5 split in the 1,200-meter leg and Lamar Grant's 46.5 400, the Blue Devils led through most of the race. The Reebok Enclave team caught Duke's Mike McKeever during his final lap, but the Blue Devils finished six seconds ahead of Georgetown, the next-closest college team.
Although Duke didn't win the race outright, Ogilvie sees a clear advantage in running with the numerous elite non-college teams at the event, such as the Reebok Enclave.
"The level of competition was extremely high," Ogilvie said. "There were a lot of open athletes trying to get ready for the Olympics. A lot of the college teams would have looked a lot better if they weren't running against the unattached athletes. But the flip-side is that they run a lot faster."
The women's DMR team, consisting of Megan Sullivan, Courtney Botts, Katie Atlas and Sheela Agrawal, finished second among college teams. The team lost a few seconds on a botched hand-off from Sullivan to Botts, but gained time on Agrawal's debut on the DMR team. Ogilvie did not think that the dropped baton had much of an impact on the final standings because the Blue Devils finished 12 seconds behind Georgetown.
"I wouldn't say it would be the difference," he said. "We just would have run a little faster. It wasn't a big deal."
Also Friday night, Terry Brennan ran a 10-second personal best in the 5,000. His time of 14:15.09 is the fifth-fastest ever run by a Blue Devil and should qualify him for the Penn Relays.
Saturday afternoon, Agrawal set a personal best of 9:41.52 in the 3,000, finishing seventh in the fastest section of the race. Throughout the race, the weather quickly turned from bad to worse. The sky was still cloudy from a moderate downpour an hour earlier when the race began, but by the third and fourth laps, wind meters inside the stadium recorded 50 and 60 mph gusts. By the final laps, the rain was coming down full speed and the 2,700 athletes in attendance were crowding under overhangs and concession stands.
Shortly after the completion of that heat, organizers canceled the event, eliminating the steeplechase and 4 x 400 relays completely, and cutting short many of the field events.
With the exception of pole vaulter Seth Benson, the Blue Devils were not terribly affected by the rain.
"It's like a rainout with two outs in the bottom of the ninth," Ogilvie said. "You would call that a complete game."
Before the rain, competitors set 12 meet records and three Blue Devils set school records. Kim Hanauer threw the shot put 40' 11", Maria Monge threw the discus 131' 7" and the 4 x 100 women's relay team ran 51.16. That team consisted of Janay McKie, Jenna Turner, Botts and Schwartz.
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