Facing top competition in challenging weather conditions, the Blue Devil women displayed their future potential and the men got a bit of a wake-up call.
The Duke women finished second out of three teams at the Sycamore Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind., Saturday morning, but the men finished in a distant third behind No. 3 Northern Arizona and No. 18 Michigan and ahead of Indiana State. Unlike the women, who got a standout fifth-place finish from freshman Lindsay Billings, the men did not have any runners in the top 10 and struggled against the Lumberjacks and Wolverines.
“We didn’t run terrible, but we certainly could have been closer to Michigan,” men's head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “We just need to get fitter, to be honest. Summer training wasn’t where it needed to be, and we have a young team with four freshmen in the top 10.”
Youth defines the women's team in head coach Rhonda Riley's first season, but the Blue Devils had four finishers in the top 16 Saturday.
After pacing Duke at last week's alumni meet, Billings finished the 5,000-meter event in 18:09.4—30 seconds ahead of any of her teammates. The Johns Creek, Ga., native combined with sophomores Olivia Gwynn, Sheridan Wilbur and Gabrielle Richichi and classmate Brittany Aveni to keep the Blue Devils ahead of Indiana State and finish in second.
Michigan dominated the event, with Wolverines finishing in seven of the top eight positions.
"She’s running with a lot of composure and confidence right now. She put in a great effort to mix it up with Michigan today,” Riley said of Billings.
Gwynn, Wilbur and Richichi ran together and finished within 13 seconds of one another in 13th, 15th and 16th, all breaking the 19-minute barrier in the difficult conditions.
“The team did a tremendous job of just having a positive attitude and not letting the rain, mud, and lightning delay have an effect on their race at all,” Riley said. “Our race strategy didn’t change because of the weather. They just really attacked the course and ran really well today.”
On the men's side, senior Stephen Shine led the team after also pacing the Blue Devils at the alumni meet. The Briarcliff, N.Y., native finished 12th in the 8,000 meters with a time of 25:52.8, with sophomore Stephen Garrett taking 13th and freshman Tom Sullivan finishing 14th about 30 seconds behind Shine.
Despite the disappointing finish on the men's side—Northern Arizona dominated with five of the top six finishers and Michigan had the rest of the top 11—Duke did get a positive effort from senior Alec Kunzweiler. Kunzweiler stepped into a deep puddle about halfway through the race, twisting his hip, but persevered to finish the event in fourth for the Blue Devils and 17th overall.
“It was a courageous race for him from that point of view because he was certainly hurting pretty bad but he hung on to be a top-four guy for us," Ogilvie said. "He was being a good captain and was trying to get the other guys to run with the Michigan guys."
Duke will return to action in two weeks at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis and could return to Terre Haute if any runners qualify for the NCAA championship.
“We faced a whole bunch of nationally-ranked teams and this was an opportunity to test ourselves and keep challenging ourselves.” Ogilvie said.
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