Three more Blue Devils to compete in NCAA's

The 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships began play Wednesday with six Blue Devils competing— all for the first time.

Freshman Austin Gamble competed in the discus throw at 2 p.m. Wednesday. In flight one, Gamble, who qualified for the event with a school-record throw in the Eastern Preliminary Round, threw 50.04m on his first attempt, then committed a foul on his second attempt before throwing it 50.06m on the third try, good for 20th place. The event was won by Arizona State’s Ryan Whiting.

At 6:15 p.m., junior Ryan McDermott competed in the steeplechase. McDermott, who has won back-to-back ACC titles in the event and ran a career-best 8:44.36 in the preliminaries to qualify, could not repeat his previous performances in Eugene, Ore. He finished in 20th after running the race in 8:55.47 and did not advance to the finals.

Carly Seymour was the final competitor for Duke Wednesday in the 10,000m run. An All-American in cross country, Seymour improved upon her qualifying time of 34:58.37 to finish in 34:06.40, but still placed 22nd out of 24 runners.

Three more days remain in the NCAA Championships, and three more Duke runners are set to compete. Thursday, junior Cory Nanni, All-ACC in cross country and indoor track, will run in the 1,500m run at 4:45 p.m. Nanni posted a 3:43.52 in the preliminaries to advance to the Championships. Also on Thursday, senior Kate Van Buskirk will run the women’s 1,500m. Her race is set to begin at 5 p.m. Provided Nanni and Buskirk make it through their heats, the runners will compete Saturday in the finals.

The last competitor for the Blue Devils is freshman Juliet Bottorff. Bottorff will race in the 5,000m after notching a time of 16:29.87 in the preliminaries to advance to Oregon.