The Blue Devils picked up their first victory of the season, beating ACC-rival Virginia and seven other teams at the Lou Onesty Invitational Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.
Duke's top five runners placed fifth through ninth, scoring 35 points and beating the second-place Cavaliers by 20. Although Virginia did not run all of its top runners, it is a consistently strong team that is expected to be nationally ranked again this year.
"We're a lot closer to Virginia than we anticipated," head coach Norm Ogilvie said. "We feel like we can at least hang with them on their home course."
Junior Kevin McDermott led the way for the Blue Devils, finishing the 8K race in a time of 25:22 for fifth place. Freshmen Bo Waggoner, Josh Brewer, Josh Lund and Cory Nanni followed close behind, all finishing within 18 seconds of McDermott.
"Normally in an 8K race you strive for a 30 second spread," Ogilvie said. "An 18 second spread is outstanding."
With four of the top five finishers, the freshmen class exceeded expectations in their first full-length collegiate race.
"[This meet] definitely showed that our heralded freshman recruiting class is worth the hype," Ogilvie said. "They did an outstanding job."
The Blue Devils raced well despite difficult conditions on the relatively shade-free course where temperatures approached 90 degrees.
"It was kind of a war of attrition out there, and our guys faired really well," Ogilvie said. "We went out very conservatively and we picked off a lot of runners in the fourth and fifth mile."
Duke will race on the same course later this season as it will be the site of the ACC championships Oct. 27.
For now, Duke will train for three weeks before traveling to Eugene, Ore. Sep. 29 to face some of the best teams in the country at the Bill Dellinger Invitational.
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