At last year's ACC Cross Country Championships, the Duke men's team shocked its competition by sweeping the individual and team titles.
The Blue Devils' victory snapped N.C. State's streak of six consecutive ACC Championships, and the Wolfpack were hungry to regain their position at the top of the conference.
The No. 17 Blue Devils were unable to duplicate last year's performance, finishing in a distant third place with 94 points, well behind No. 6 N.C. State (26) and No. 21 Wake Forest (45).
"It was not a great day for us," men's coach Norm Ogilvie said. "We ran kind of flat and definitely not up to our potential. Like any sport, it's hard to be on every time. We usually have one flat race a year, so hopefully we got it out of the way on Saturday."
As usual, the Blue Devils were paced by senior Sean Kelly, last year's individual champion. Kelly finished seventh out of 71 runners, covering the eight-kilometer course in 24:40.6.
He was followed by a fairly tight pack of freshmen, Robert Smitson (15th, 25:05.8) and Michael Hatch (21st, 25:18.7), junior Jared Moore (24th, 25:22.9), sophomore Chris Williams (28th, 25:33.2), senior Jim Martin (32nd, 25:38.2) and freshman Nick Schneider (38th, 25:45.8).
Because Kelly placed among the top 10 runners, he was named to the All-ACC team for the second consecutive year.
"It was great that Sean made the All-ACC team," Ogilvie said. "But, like all of our guys, he looked a little tired out there."
Although Ogilvie was disappointed in the third-place finish, he did not want to make the same mistake at ACCs this year that he did last year when his squad peaked too early in the season.
After their 2000 ACC Championship, the Blue Devils had little left for nationals and had their poorest showing of the year.
"We didn't taper before ACCs this year because we got ready too early last year," Ogilvie said. "This season we really want to focus on nationals and reach our team goal of finishing in the top 15."
Just as the men did not perform up to their potential Saturday, the women's cross country team also placed lower than expected.
The Blue Devils women came into the race ranked 17th nationally, but finished in fifth place with 136 points, trailing No. 4 NC State (39), No. 12 North Carolina (55), No. 15 Virginia (80) and unranked Georgia Tech (107).
"We are a better team than we showed on Saturday," women's coach Jan Samuelson-Ogilvie said. "We realistically thought we could have been third. This is a small step down for us, but we have made big strides this year and we need to get rested and get ahead academically so that when we race at Districts in two weeks, we will be ready."
Saturday's results, however, do bode well for the future of the women's cross country team because the top three Duke runners were all freshmen.
Paige Miller led the Blue Devils with a 14th-place finish with a time of 22:04.0. She was followed by fellow freshmen Paris Edwards (23rd, 22:26.8) and Meaghan Leon (30th, 22:41.7).
Both the men's and women's teams return to action next weekend at the Virginia Open, but they are mostly focused on being ready for the District meet on Nov. 10 in Greenville, S.C.. Their results at this meet will determine their status for the NCAA Championships.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.