Taking a cue from a John Mellencamp tour schedule, the men's and women's cross country teams followed up last week's appearance in South Bend, Ind. by competing in Saturday's Pre-National Invitational in Ames, Iowa.
The men's team finished seventh at the meet, while the women finished 25th.
The men's seventh-place result came against a very strong field that included two of the country's top three teams, Stanford and Colorado.
"We ran a wonderful race," coach Norm Ogilvie said. "All five of our guys ran like they're capable of, and it really showed."
The performance propelled the Blue Devils to the No. 12 ranking in the coaches' poll, the highest ranking in program history. Duke jumped ahead of 14th-ranked N.C. State, and will enter the ACC Championships as the No. 1 team in the conference.
The jump in ranking left the Blue Devils considering the possibility of a conference title.
"This team is capable of bringing home the ACC title," Ogilvie said. "It will be very difficult, however. State will be fired up after the poll, and it's on their home course."
The Blue Devils were led by Terry Brennan, who finished 28th overall with a time of 31:34.7 for the 10,000-meter course. Brennan was the top ACC finisher at the meet, and was named the ACC performer of the week for his finish.
Ogilvie felt that Brennan's performance bodes well for the NCAA Championships.
"He showed that he has an excellent chance at making All-American," Ogilvie said. "That goes to the top-25 American-born runners. At Ames, he was probably the 16th or 17th American at worst."
But this was not a one-man effort. Sean Kelly finished 47th, and Brendan Fitzgibbon bounced back from a disappointing finish at Notre Dame to place 73rd at Ames.
"Brendan understood that he had to come through this weekend," Ogilvie said. "He did so beautifully."
The pleasant surprise for the day was the performance of freshman Chris Williams. Williams, running his first 10K, finished fifth for the Blue Devils, beating the fifth man of previously No. 1 Stanford.
The women's team did not have as good a weekend, finishing 25th overall.
"We did not perform as well as we had hoped," Maddy Woodmansee said.
The women's team was squaring off against 18 of the nation's top 25 teams, and doing so with something of a disadvantage. Unlike the men's team, most of the women had multiple mid-terms during the week preceding the meet. The result was a Duke team lacking rest.
"Sleep is a huge part of how you are going to perform," Woodmansee said. "We were all pretty exhausted."
The one bright spot for the weekend was the performance of Sheela Agrawal. Agrawal finished 20th overall with a time of 21:42.3 for the 6,000-meter course.
This finish against a strong field put her firmly in contention for an All-America finish in the NCAAs.
The Blue Devils were quick to note that although this performance is a dropoff from the result at Notre Dame, they do not believe it is indicative of a trend. The team remains confident heading into the ACC Championships.
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