The Blue Devils competed in the NCAA Southeast Regional cross country race Friday for their final race of the 2024 cross country season. On both the men’s side and women’s side, the races in Rock Hill, S.C., were filled with several star-studded teams in the ACC, including North Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest, and Virginia. The men’s team held its own and finished in an impressive ninth out of 32, while the women’s side consisted of only a couple of runners from the Blue Devils team, and did not place.
The men’s side recorded yet another strong team performance as the first through fifth best Duke runners finished within 29 seconds of each other. Graduate student Jack Stanley and sophomore Alden Keller led the charge, finishing 41st and 48th, respectively, out of 240 runners.
“Both runners showed a tremendous amount of resilience,” head coach Kevin Jermyn said. “Jack was injured and sick at the beginning of the season, and he did not start training consistently until the middle of October. I did not think that he would be able to get back to a level where he could contribute to the team this year, but he made the most of the little time he had.”
What’s most impressive about both of their races was their steady progression and the way they worked together. Coming past the 3.2K marker, Keller and Stanley were side by side in the 64th and 65th positions. They continued to run alongside each other and push each other, and they found themselves in 50th and 51st respectively at the 5K mark. When they reached 8K, Stanley had made it up to 44nd with Keller right behind him in 47th, setting them up to finish close together.
Junior Ryan Banko (52nd), freshman Luke Thompson (63rd) and graduate student Duncan Miller (64th) rounded out the top five for the Blue Devils.
Jermyn was pleased with the results from the men’s team, calling it a great representation of its progression throughout the season.
“I thought it was our best showing on the men’s side of the season,” Jermyn said. “We put more pieces together than we have all season, and this race was the best day of the year for our top 5 guys in particular.”
On the women’s side, only two runners competed in the Southeast Regional. Sophomore Lindsay Hausman finished in 175th out of 251, while Hattie Reynolds did not finish.
With the conclusion of regionals comes the conclusion of the Blue Devils’ season: The team failed to qualify for the NCAA national race, which will take place in Verona, Wisc., next Saturday. Looking back on the season and his first year as the Duke head cross country coach, Jermyn is happy with his team’s progress, but he knows the team still has more work to do to achieve their ultimate goals.
“Coming in as a new coach, expectations are always massive, but my takeaway is that cross country is a long-term game of small incremental improvements within a team,” Jermyn said. “The team wants to be even better in the future, but it’s about being patient.”
The Blue Devils will lose several important seniors and graduate students at the end of the school year, but the cross country team has a relatively young nucleus and is set up for success in the coming years.
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