The Blue Devil women are gearing up to take a more aggressive stance as the gun goes off on the 2012 season.
The 2011 women’s team found themselves in the disappointing position of not being able to qualify for the NCAA National meet as some of their top runners, such as NCAA Outdoor 10K Champion Juliet Bottorff, were sidelined by injuries and the rest of the team proved unable to make up the difference. Only senior Madeline Morgan was able to qualify for the meet as an individual.
This year’s Blue Devils are doing everything they can to prevent this team from ending up on the trainer’s bed. Bottorff, a returning team captain this year, as well as the rest of her teammates, is taking greater care in her training to prevent injury. According to head women’s coach Kevin Jermyn, the coaches are also doing their part to ensure that if unexpected injuries do occur, the rest of the team is ready to rise to the challenge.
“[This group] is not taking things for granted,” Jermyn said. “I think everybody learns from the past. And the past showed us that we had some of our top runners not run the season and other people feel underprepared or not expecting to be in that role or overwhelmed by it…. Their responsibility is to prepare to be at the line at the national championship, to be at the line at the ACC Championship and to be the best that they can be as opposed to hoping that things will go perfectly.”
Despite the added pressure on the women to top their showing in the previous season, the team dynamic is one of excitement, rather than nervousness. Both the upperclassmen and the freshmen are entering the season with an eagerness that they admitted might have been inspired by watching Olympic runners compete in London, including Duke alumna Shannon Rowbury.
“Last year was a disappointment for sure,” Bottorff said. “It was killing me to not be out there with them…and I know they weren’t very happy with how the season went either. We have much higher goals. We know that we’re better than that.”
Although the drive of the upperclassmen stems from their desire to recover from last year’s performance, the freshmen have found their motivation elsewhere. The leadership of the upperclassmen has been influential in easing their transition to the increased intensity of collegiate training and ensuring that the new Blue Devils are ready to compete, and, if need be, step in to fill vacancies in Duke’s lineup.
“I absolutely love the team here. It’s a great family atmosphere…and our coaches are amazing. We’re learning how to train a lot smarter,” freshman Holly Bischof said. “Definitely [races] will be a bit more of a challenge in college because everyone you race against is fast. I wouldn’t actually say that I’m nervous about it, I’d say I’m excited for it because when everyone else around you is running faster it pushes you to run faster as well.”
With experienced returners like Bottorff, Morgan and Suejin Ahn leading the way, the new recruits should have plenty of motivation to pick up their own pace and, as Jermyn put it, “work together to put Duke back at the forefront of the national running scene.”
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