Facing top-notch competition at the Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minn., the Duke men had another tough outing, but the women held their ground.
The Blue Devil women team placed 15th out of 34 teams on a six-kilometer course, and the men finished 22nd out of 29 teams on the eight-kilometer course at the Les Bolstad Golf Course. As was the case at the Sycamore Invitational two weeks ago in Indiana, a freshman put on a stellar performance for the women’s team.
Freshman Sophia Parvizi-Wayne clocked a time of 22:16.8 and finished in 18th place in her Duke debut, two weeks after rookie Lindsay Billings was the first Blue Devil runner to cross the finish line.
“This was [Sophia’s] first collegiate race, and she really has no idea who she is racing against," Duke women's head coach Rhonda Riley told GoDuke.com. "She raced against All-Americans and beat a lot of quality individuals, so I’m very pleased with her first 6K."
Pack running has been a big part of Riley and the women’s team’s philosophy, and sophomores Sheridan Wilbur and Liz Lansing ran together for much of Saturday's race. They finished within three seconds of one another with respective times of 23:20.5 and 23:22.8 and placed 88th and 93rd.
Billings crossed the finish line in 124th place, and sophomore Gabrielle Richichi rounded out the Blue Devils' scoring with a 154th-place finish. Duke's second through fifth runners all finished within about 40 seconds of each other.
“They packed up well, and they finished strong. They never gave up and they kept pushing. I’m very pleased with it," Riley said. “To finish 15th against such quality competition is great for this squad and we’re positive. We know we’re making the right steps and moving forward.”
Portland won the women's race, and the Duke women finished first out of three ACC teams in the field.
On the men's side, junior Stephen Shine finished with a time of 26:38.7 and placed 105th overall, pacing the Blue Devils for the third race in a row. Following the Briarcliff, N.Y., native were sophomore Stephen Garrett and freshman Cole Hoff, who both crossed the finish line in fewer than 27 minutes for respective places of 128th and 145th.
Hoff trimmed 20 seconds off his time from the Sycamore Invitational two weeks ago in his second career collegiate race at the eight-kilometer distance. Freshman Tom Sullivan ran 44 seconds slower than he did two weeks ago, finishing 151st with a time of 27:06.1.
The men’s team amassed a total of 613 points and finished behind the other two ACC squads in the race—Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh—as 19th-ranked Portland surprised the field with five finishers in the top 25 to take home both titles.
Duke will look to regroup and improve at the Royals Challenge in Charlotte in two weeks.
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