Freshman Katelyn Bastert won her first collegiate cross country race and led Duke to victory at the Catamount Classic in Cullowhee, N.C. Saturday.
The 17th-ranked Blue Devils dominated the six-team field by scoring a total of 16 points, 57 points ahead of second-place Furman University.
"We were hopeful that we would have a strong start to the season and we definitely had that start," head coach Kevin Jermyn said. "It was a much stronger start than we had last year and we still finished last year's season well. We're hoping that if we have a similar development curve to last year, this could be a special team come November."
Bastert led the race from wire to wire and completed the 4K course in 14:37.30. She was followed closely by a pack of four teammates who all finished within 30 seconds of her time. The pack included junior Patricia Loughlin who placed second, sophomore Emily Sherrard who finished third, freshman Emily Schwitzer who was fourth, and sophomore Shelley Forbes who came in sixth.
"[Bastert] set the pace and ran with a lot of confidence," Jermyn said. "She showed great poise competing at such a high level in her first college race."
In addition to Bastert's stellar performance, co-captain Patricia Loughlin had her best cross country finish as a Blue Devil.
The team showed solid depth this past weekend, despite losing four of their top seven runners from last year's team to graduation and racing without their top two returning runners - Maddie McKeever and Kate Van Buskirk.
The team will spend the next two weeks training before returning to competition at the Mary Keatinge Invitational Sep. 29 in Orono, Maine.
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