This Saturday when the Blue Devils line up for the start of the NCAA Southeast Regional meet, they will be racing for the chance to extend their season for another nine days to compete at the NCAA championships.
The men are setting out to make history as they race in Louisville, Ky. Saturday. If they qualify for the NCAA championship meet, it will be the first time in program history that the team has made three consecutive trips to the championships in Terre Haute, Ind. To do this, Duke—which ranks fifth among teams in the region—will have to either take a top-two ?nish at the regional to earn an automatic bid, or at least race well enough to merit an at-large bid.
The main competition in the Southeast region will come from N.C. State, North Carolina, Eastern Kentucky and Louisville. The Wolfpack are expected to take the ?rst spot, while the Duke and the other three schools will jockey for second and third. If the Blue Devils do not end up with a second-place finish and an automatic bid, finishing ahead of North Carolina and Louisville will help the most in securing an at-large bid due to the system the NCAA uses to choose the at-large teams. After a series of successful practices, the team is ready to take on that challenge
“We are heading into the meet ?t, rested and eager to run,” men’s head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “We certainly think we have a shot to [qualify for nationals] if we run well. We’re looking forward to surprising some people, and we de?nitely plan on ?nishing higher than ?fth.”
This year, the team will be led by seniors Andrew Brodeur and Stephen Clark. For the upperclassmen, the meet holds additional importance as their last chance to qualify for nationals. Brodeur, who has had a successful season, is focusing on helping the team secure its bid by finishing in the top 20. And like Ogilvie, Brodeur remains hopeful about the team’s ability to defy expectations, citing an automatic bid as a possibility despite Duke’s ?fth-place ranking.
“I’m certainly looking at it as coming into the end of my cross-country career,” Brodeur said. “I really want to make it count. I think we still have a chance to get in on an automatic bid.”
The women are also eager for the chance to race in the NCAA championship, and, like the men, will race with con?dence.
“We’re feeling pretty fresh and excited to go out and race,” senior Esther Vermeer said. “I’m con?dent in our abilities and that we can make it.”
The men and women face similar challenges. The women’s main competition at the regional meet will come from N.C. State, Virginia and North Carolina. In order to remain competitive in terms of qualifying for nationals, Duke will need to cross the ?nish in front of one of these teams and secure a third-place spot. Given their current ranking, a third-place finish would be an upset, but head coach Kevin Jermyn feels like his runners have reached a new level of preparation.
“They know we want to move on to nationals,” Jermyn said. “They know where we’re at. They know we’re not ranked among the top two or three teams in the nation.... With our training, we feel more prepared for this meet than certainly any of our other competitions.”
Vermeer, who along with her classmate Suejin Ahn and junior Madeline Morgan, has been a frontrunner for the Blue Devils this season, is looking at the meet as her last chance to travel to nationals with her team. In hopes of assisting her teammates to take a top-three spot, Vermeer is looking to place in the top 25 individually and earn All-Region honors.
“It would be a great end to the season if we make it and kind of a disappointment if we don’t,” Vermeer said. “There’s a lot riding on this race.”
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