As 2024 comes to a close, The Chronicle’s sports department is reviewing the biggest moments from this year in Duke athletics.
At No. 7, Duke track and field won the ACC Outdoor Championships for the second year in a row. The Blue Devils dominated the field and continued their success at the NCAA Championships:
In May, the Blue Devil women cemented themselves as the most fearsome competitors in the world of ACC track and field. For the second year in a row, Duke stood atop the podium at the conference championship meet thanks to a relentless effort from its sprinters.
The Blue Devils don’t compete in any scored meet until ACCs, but if they did, their 2024 outdoor season would be replete with victories. In every meet, runners smashed personal records and reset the bar for the Duke record books, too. In March, Amina Maatoug reset the score in the 5000m race with a 15:37.38 that cut down her previous school record by 10 seconds. In early April, Samantha Wallenstrom broke the VertKlasse Meeting meet record with 2:08.68 in the 800m after sitting out for months with an injury. At the Duke Invitational a week later, Charlotte Tomkinson broke the meet record in the 1500m with a personal best of 4:15.68. At the same meet, Lauren Tolbert notched another meet record with a 52.19-second showing in the 400m dash.
So when the ACC Championship meet rolled around a few weeks later, it wasn’t much of a surprise that the Blue Devil women took off in flames. The sprints team highlighted the weekend in Atlanta, winning all across the board. To claim redemption for its falter the year before, Duke won a statement victory in the 4x400m relay. Megan McGinnis (recovered from an injury), Maddy Doane, Meredith Sims and Tolbert beat out competitive Miami and Clemson teams for the gold medal, spurred on by a particularly outstanding lap from Sims, who cut two seconds off her previous personal best.
Doane joined Abby Geiser, Mia Edim and Halle Bieber to take first in the 4x100m relay, too. They ran a season-best 43.59 seconds to barely edge out Florida State and win the relay for the first time in program history.
Tolbert, not tired easily, helped her relay team to a victory in the 4x400m after already earning a gold medal for herself. The then-sophomore ran a personal best 52 seconds in the individual 400m dash, pulling through in the final 100-meter stretch to avoid a takeover by Clemson senior Ken’naria Gadson. Tolbert put her name as third all-time in Duke history.
Bieber took second in the 200m, Brianna Smith won silver in the heptathlon and Skyla Wilson first in the 400m hurdles and third in the 100m hurdles. Then-freshman Julia Magliaro took second in the javelin while her classmate Gemma Tutton won the pole vault.
All in all, the Blue Devil women swept away the rest of the conference with 133 points, 14.5 more than second-place Clemson. They were missing Maatoug and standout graduate sprinter Tina Martin for the big event — due to injuries accumulated from a season of success — but, evidently, didn't need them that much. Depth, depth and more depth defines the Blue Devil women’s track team across the board; it can run, hurdle and jump its way to victory.
The best of Duke comes out on the asphalt. Tolbert’s excellence on the track didn’t end with ACCs. She finished her season as energetically as she started it, earning a spot on the All-America first team while finishing as the eighth-fastest 800m runner in the country. The sophomore’s 2:01.79 preliminary time at the NCAA Championships broke Duke’s program record, which was already hers to begin with.
Tolbert now takes off for her junior season with the Blue Devils, looking to lead her team to a third-straight conference victory. The bar is high for Duke, but this team has jumped over it before.
Read more
Duke track and field 2024 season review
7 Blue Devils named All-Americans at NCAA Championships, Guttormsen wins bronze
Wallenstrom smashes meet record, field athletes excel for Duke track and field at VertKlasse Meeting
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Sophie Levenson is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.