Friday’s races at the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational marked the first race in which both the Duke men’s and women’s teams competed their fastest runners. The races were filled with a great deal of competition: The men’s race featured three of the top 20 teams in the nation and the women’s saw four of the top 30.
The Duke men placed 14th out of 15 teams, and the women took 14th out of 16. Head coach Kevin Jermyn, however, was rather enthusiastic about the team’s efforts.
“It was our first hard effort of the year. I did not know what to expect coming in. But I would say that the majority of our team was pleased,” Jermyn said. The Blue Devils competed at the Adidas XC Challenge in September, but the Blue Devils racing were mostly supporting runners.
The women’s side did feature a fair number of promising results. Sophomore Thais Rolly finished highest among the Blue Devils in a very respectable 38th place out of 148 runners. One of the most interesting aspects about her race was her steady progression throughout: She crossed the 1K mark in 47th, the 3K in 46th, the 5K in 44th and then leapfrogged six runners in the final kilometer to finish in 38th. Just three seconds behind her was sophomore Hattie Reynolds, who took 41st. Freshman Ella Johns (73rd), Senior Abigail Paczewski (110th), and Senior Katie Hamilton (116th) rounded out the top 5 for the Blue Devils.
On the men’s side, Duke’s two leading runners, sophomore Nick Falk and junior Jeremy Kain, took 63rd and 65th, respectively, out of 130 total runners. Senior Duncan Miller (73rd), Junior Ryan Banko (80th), and sophomore Sean Morello (90th) completed the top five for the men’s squad.
Though runners on both the men’s and women’s sides did not necessarily record high finishing spots, many ran their personal bests.
“We’ve been conservative to try to develop a safe base of training in late August and September, and now it is time to get more aggressive in our workout,” Jermyn said. “Most of the teams have raced once or twice before today. There are massive gains to be experienced with each race the runners get under their belts. I am fully confident that in a couple of weeks’ time, our team will feel more comfortable going into a race.”
After the main event, a handful of Blue Devils competed in the men’s 8K open race. The team was led by senior Jack Kovach, who took ninth out of 35 runners and led Duke to second-place overall in the event. Jermyn was pleased with the results, especially as it highlighted the depth of the men’s team.
“We have good depth on the men’s side. Many of our runners are running their fastest times, and that’s where much of team satisfaction comes from. To move up teamwise, we need to have our most talented runners performing their absolute best for upcoming championships because the level of competition is amazing,” Jermyn said.
Duke begins to turn its attention to the postseason, which will begin at the ACC championships Nov. 1st at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, NC. This is a course that some of the team is familiar with after racing it in the Adidas XC Challenge a few weeks ago. Jermyn made it clear that this race is what the team has been training for all season long.
“Our eyes are on trying to have a strong finish in November,” he said. Jermyn’s goal is to “help a team that does not have a ton of experience at a high level in Division I get experience, get fitness, keep on growing, and keep setting faster and faster times on the course.”
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