Despite a waterlogged course at the Roy Griak Invitational Saturday in Minnesota, the Blue Devils brought home third place in both the individual and team competitions. Junior Bo Waggoner ran a 24:53 on the 8K course, finishing third behind All-Americans Hassan Mead of Minnesota and Guor Majak of Iowa State, for Duke’s best individual finish in the history of the meet.
Waggoner’s strong effort was followed closely by that of his teammates, as junior Cory Nanni finished 13th and sophomore James Kostelnik earned the 24th position to round out the top three for Duke. The Blue Devils’ top five individual scores combined for a team score of 94, good for third place out of 18 teams, an improvement of five places from last year’s finish.
Saturday marked the first time Duke has ever finished among the top five at the meet.
The Blue Devils were also the first team to finish all seven of their scoring runners in the meet, with sophomore Andrew Brodeur’s time of 25:33 locking in the podium finish for Duke. This speaks to the strength of the Blue Devils’ depth this season, as Brodeur, Duke’s seventh-best finisher this weekend, still ended up 33rd overall in the race out of 176 runners.
“Our guys ran extremely well on a very soggy course,” head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “Bo [Waggoner] had an All-America-type performance today and this was the best cross country race of Nanni’s career. We are very excited about the depth of our top seven men.”
Saturday’s results put Duke’s record for the season at 23-2. Next weekend the team returns closer to home to compete in the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary Oct. 2.
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