Despite many of the Blue Devils' top athletes taking the weekend off, the Blue Devils put together a strong showing this weekend at the Joe Hilton UNC Invitational.
Sophomore Amy Fryt put another winning notch on her belt Saturday, winning the women's pole vault for the fourth consecutive weekend. Fryt's height of 12 feet, 11.5 inches tied the outdoor personal-best mark she set a week ago at the Duke Invitational.
Duke also received wins from senior Tricia Laughlin, who ran the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:51.61, and senior Robert Weinstein, who threw 201 feet, eight inches in the men's javelin.
The UNC Invitational was the Blue Devils' last tuneup meet before the ACC championships. It represented a chance for some of Duke's top competitors to rest and an opportunity for other athletes to step into the spotlight.
"Amy Fryt is undefeated in the ACC in pole vault," director of track and field Norm Ogilvie said. "She's on a real roll and has a shot at the ACC title. Bobby Weinstein did a great job in the javelin, with a regional qualifying mark, and under wind conditions that weren't very favorable. [Sophomore] John Austin is probably the favorite for the ACCs, but he was resting this weekend."
Many of Duke's distance runners took the weekend off in preparation for the upcoming conference meet, but sophomore Joshua Lund, freshman Stephen Clark, freshman James Kostelnik and junior Ken Sullivan still ran away with the men's 1,500-meter run, taking fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively, behind three unaffiliated runners.
"It's tough to run the longer races consecutively, so we rested some of the guys this weekend," Ogilvie said. "We were competing our fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh guys in the 1,500 this weekend. All four had seasonal bests, and all but Lund had lifetime bests."
With many athletes recording personal bests Saturday, and those not competing getting a valuable rest weekend, Ogilvie is looking forward to the postseason, as he sees the opportunity for Blue Devils to win in five different events.
"We're strong in a number of events," Ogilvie said. "Austin leads the javelin, Ryan McDermott in the steeple, and Jade Ellis leads in the long jump, ranked No. 1 in the ACC going into the conference meet."
After poor results at the ACC meet last year, where the men finished ninth and the women 12th in the conference, Duke looks to move up the standings next weekend.
"We're excited," Ogilvie said. "We think we can do quite a bit better in the ACCs than last year, and there's a favorable weather forecast for the weekend right now."
The Blue Devils are focused on the ACC Championships next weekend, but are still looking forward to the Penn Relays a week later.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.