Overview
2022 was a season of great promise with middling results for the Blue Devils. After a difficult 2021 season, expectations were high for the women’s team thanks to the addition of freshman Dalia Frias and transfer Ashlyn Ramos. Meanwhile, the men’s team added several first-years and returned many of its top seven runners, including senior Zach Kinne and graduate student Chris Theodore.
But while the women’s team saw strong improvement from the previous season, both teams finished in seventh place at the ACC Championships and fifth at the NCAA Regional, short of earning a bid to NCAA Nationals. One bright spot was the addition of Dutch signee Amina Maatoug, who became the women’s team’s breakout star. Her performance in the Southeast Regional earned a spot in the NCAA Championship, where she finished in 28th place.
“She is on a mission this year,” head coach Angela Reckart told The Chronicle, remarking that Maatoug had gained valuable racing experience during the year and while competing at the European U23 championships, where she received a bronze medal.
This season, Duke heads into an ACC cross country landscape just as tough as the previous season.
“We’re very realistic with the depths of the conference and our region,” Reckart. “I think finishing even just [as] a top-five program in the ACC would be a significant jump for us … but we’re putting in the work to ensure that we can achieve what we want to achieve, which is being at the [NCAA Championships] and having both teams there.”
With key runners on both teams like Frias, Ramos, Kinne and Theodore having departed, the team will look to both its returning veterans and its new slate of exciting freshmen. With these factors in play, Duke hopes to return both its teams to the NCAA Championships for the first time in three years. -Tyler Walley
New runners to watch
Men: Jackson Heidesch, Riley Newport
Reckart noted that the men’s team would likely see less action from its newcomers thanks to the “jump up” from 8k to 10k races. Two freshmen that may buck this trend are Jackson Heidesch and Riley Newport.
Heidesch, a 6-foot-3 freshman from West Des Moines, Iowa, was named the All-Iowa Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year in 2022. A confident runner with a standout high school career, Heidesch notably captured 800-meter and 1600-meter titles in his track seasons following a fall to the ground. Newport, who is from Dekalb, Ill., also had a decorated cross country and track career, featuring a personal-best of 15:15 in the 5K. This men’s team is without its top-four runners from NCAA Regionals, so, in addition to graduate students like Sam Rivera, the team will need newcomers like Heidesch and Newport to step up. -Walley
Women: Thais Rolly, Ella Johns
The women’s team is adding several standout freshmen, with Thais Rolly and Ella Johns firmly in contention to rise to the top seven. Rolly, a McLean, Va.-native, had a strong cross country and track career in high school, which featured a 5K state title in her sophomore year. Last October, Rolly ran an impressive 16:56 at the MileStat Invitational 5k. Meanwhile, Johns, who hails from Fort Collins, Colo., had a similarly impressive high school career that saw her reach a personal-best of 17:15 in the 5k. As the season progresses, look for these two to work their way up to the top of the roster alongside the rest of their class. -Walley
Returning runner to watch: Amina Maatoug
Maatoug has been on an uphill trajectory ever since setting foot in Durham a year ago. And it’s not like she started at the bottom of the hill, either; on the contrary, the Leiden, Netherlands, native took off with a bang when she kicked off her American collegiate career with the Blue Devils last season by winning the Virginia Invitational. From there, Maatoug followed through on a prominent rookie season, with peak performances earning her second place at the Lehigh Paul Short Run and fourth in the ACC Championship meet. After running to sixth place in the regional competition, the breakout star found herself qualified for the NCAA Championship meet, where she ran 20:04.6 to earn a respectable 28th place.
Where Maatoug really earned her stripes, however, was in the outdoor track and field season. She earned second at the conference championship meet in the 1500m — helping the women’s team in their sweeping victory that weekend — and then followed up that performance by clocking 15:48.22 in the 5k at the national meet, a time that put her at fifth in the nation.
Undoubtedly, Maatoug’s inaugural year with the Blue Devils had some bumps on the course. Her ceiling in the cross country season certainly stood higher than the platform on which she finished. But that’s what next seasons are for. Now, it’s time for Maatoug to shatter that ceiling. -Sophie Levenson
Most anticipated meet: Nuttycombe Invitational, Oct. 13
The most competitive and exciting meet of the season for the Blue Devils looks to be the annual Nuttycombe Invitational, which Wisconsin will host at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course. Last year’s run of this course served as an indicator for the rest of the season, as it provided an opportunity for the Blue Devils to compete with diverse and intense competition on a tough course far away from home. If the Blue Devil women want to match stride with some of the better running programs in the country — currently a mix of teams from all over but with neighboring N.C. State firmly at the top of the nation — they must showcase their best at Nuttycombe.
Additionally, Nuttycombe falls in the middle of the season, two weeks before the ACC Championships. With the ECU Pirate Invitational sandwiched between the two events, the race out in the Midwest allows ample time for runners to adjust timing techniques before the conference finals. -Levenson
Best-case scenario
Duke’s program, though it continues to move in the right direction as a unit, will look for success this season in individual accomplishment. Maatoug can comfortably finish in the top three of the ACC. In a perfectly Duke-blue world, she’d gain enough speed to surpass Wolfpack champion Katelyn Tuohy. This is a big ask, however, considering Tuohy won not only the conference finals last year, but also the national championship — so for Maatoug to place behind her in the ACC finals and move up to the top ten in the national competition would look more like a reasonable best-case for the Duke women.
If the men’s program can find a rising star amongst its five freshmen, things will be looking up. It’s too soon to hope that the Blue Devil men will manage to become a truly competitive team, but baby steps are important and gratifying, especially for athletes who excel in the long game. -Levenson
Worst-case scenario
Bad days can happen at the worst times in the running world, a place where one off race from a single runner can mean the downfall of an entire team. If the wind blows the wrong way this season, Duke will see Maatoug plateau. Additionally, the jury is still out on the four freshman women who have hopped onto this season’s roster — and if the Blue Devils want any sort of conference success, these young athletes must prove to be nothing short of exceptional. If that isn’t the case, it may be another year of a program that’s nothing to write home about.
A worst-case scenario for the men’s team would look like minimal improvement from returning runners and a lack of incoming talent amongst the five freshman recruits. The Blue Devil men worked hard last season but failed to form a unit that could really compete with other teams, in or outside of the ACC. To not qualify any individual runners for the regional competition in November would be a heavy disappointment for the men’s running program — but certainly not an impossibility. -Levenson
Predictions
Walley: Women fifth in ACC, men seventh in ACC
Levenson: Women fourth in ACC, men ninth in ACC, Maatoug top ten at NCAAs
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Sophie Levenson is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.