The women's cross country team finished in a tie for fifth Saturday at the Pre-NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., while the men's squad finished a disappointing 26th.
The women's squad, ranked 11th nationally, owes its impressive finish to the team's younger runners, since all five of its scorers were freshmen. Caroline Bierbaum led the way, covering the six-kilometer course in 20:48 as the 12th individual finisher.
"Caroline continues to impress people nationwide," head women's coach Jan Ogilvie said. "She is clearly one of the top two or three freshman in the country."
The next Blue Devil finishers were Clara Horowitz and Sally Meyerhoff who came in at 31st and 32nd overall with times of 21:18 and 21:20, respectively. Despite such a close finish, the two roommates did not run together.
Shannon Rowbury and Laura Stanley rounded out the Duke scoring with their 62nd and 71st place finishes.
The team finished tied for fifth with Missouri, at 209 points. The women's race had a field of 38 teams, including No. 1 Brigham Young, who won the meet with 55 points. Horowitz was very happy about the team's finish, especially in light of its timing.
"Except for Sally, everyone had a mediocre day, because we're training hard and it's the middle of the season." Horowitz said.
Ogilvie emphatically concurred.
"When you beat the teams that we did and realize that we still have the ability to be much better than we even were, it's exciting," she said.
The No. 23 men's team was led by junior Chris Williams, who logged a 25:00 finish on the 8,000 meter course and earned a 67th-place overall finish.
The rest of the team was close behind, with sophomore Michael Hatch, senior Jared Moore, and sophomore Nick Schneider finishing within six seconds of one another. The trio finished 113th, 120th and 126th, respectively. Ian Cronin was the final Duke scorer, with a time of 26:46. The team finished 26th out of 36, with 653 points.
Both teams will head to Atlanta Nov. 2 to contend for the ACC championship. Horowitz was enthusiastic about her team's chances, despite the fact that the Blue Devils have never won the ACC title.
"The team goal is definitely to win [the conference title]," Horowitz said, "and if we were to go out there and do our best and have a few outstanding [individual] races, we can win it."
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