Overview
The 2024 Duke cross country campaign showed mixed results, but a promising future, in the first year of new head coach Kevin Jermyn’s time in Durham. In a relatively short season, the Blue Devils raced just six times, including the ACC Championships and the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships.
Duke opened up the season with a strong showing in an exhibition matchup against nearby North Carolina A&T, sweeping both the men’s and women’s sides. Their next performance, however, was more telling of how the Blue Devils would fare in Jermyn’s first year against higher levels of competition, particularly in the ACC. Duke finished out its regular season with poor results at the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational in Chicago and then a bounceback performance in Charlottesville, Va., at the Panorama Farms Invitational before preparing for its championship races.
Throughout the season, the men did not quite find a true top runner, with graduate student Jack Stanley, junior Jeremy Kain and graduate student Matthew Farrell each finishing atop the Blue Devil leaderboard in meets. Stanley’s performance in Charlottesville was perhaps the best of the season for Duke, coming in 21st and logging an impressive 23:53 over 8K. His time at the race led the men to a fifth-place finish at the meet.
The ACC Championships were disappointing for the Blue Devils, as neither the men nor the women finished in the top ten. There are, however, no qualification measures for the Southeast Regionals, so both sides were able to race in the meet, where they fared much better. The men closed out their season in a respectable ninth place out of 32, while the women, only racing one runner with sophomore Lindsay Hausman, did not place.
Because it was Jermyn’s first year, expectations were generally low for the Blue Devils coming into the season, particularly after a disappointing season last time around. While both sides were definitely upset with their performances at ACCs, the bounceback on the men’s side left the team with optimism going into the indoor track season.
The women’s team definitely had more belief coming into the season, so a last place finish at the ACCs alongside a NTS (no team score) was definitely disheartening, but for a first year head coach with a team consisting primarily of juniors and younger, a high finish in the ACC was relatively unlikely. The men came into the season with similarly low optimism, and a ninth-place finish at the regionals was a much better showing than anticipated, particularly after the results in the ACCs.
As for Jermyn, prioritizing physical and mental health was a priority of his this year, something at which he generally succeeded. Outside of sophomore Jackson Heidesch, the men’s side stayed generally healthy throughout the year, avoiding major injuries.
Best Meet: Panorama Farms Invitational
The Blue Devils’ best meet of the season was certainly in Charlottesville at the Panorama Farms Invitational. As noted earlier, Stanley’s 21st-place finish was the best of the season for the Blue Devil men; two other Duke men also finished in the top 50. The men’s fifth-place team finish was by far its best of the semester.
The women also ran very well in Charlottesville, finishing eighth as a team — also their best of the campaign. Sophomore Hattie Reynolds finished 15th overall and freshman Caroline Hood came in just behind her at 20th. The two ran 21:06 and 21:23, respectively, in the 6K race for two of Duke’s best finishes of the season. Jermyn, who headed up the Duke women’s team earlier in his career, was particularly pleased after that race, noting that it was the best he had ever seen from those two.
MVP: Jack Stanley
Stanley led the Blue Devils in multiple races this season. The graduate transfer from Princeton paced Duke in Charlottesville, but also led the team at the Southeast Regionals in Rock Hill, S.C. There, he finished the 10K in 31:04 to place 41st, a number Jermyn was particularly proud of given how his season began. The Mendham, N.J., native was sick to start the season and unable to race until October. His two finishes at the top of the team in the three races were extremely impressive, and he certainly brought a veteran presence to a team that had recently lost its leaders.
Key departures
On the men’s side, Stanley and Farrell, both graduate students, will both be gone next season, which will mean a big hit to Jermyn’s squad. The two frequented Duke’s top five throughout the season, so replacing them will be a difficult task. It should, however, allow for some of the younger Blue Devils to shine next season, including Heidesch, freshman Aden Bandukwala, and sophomore Alden Keller, who put up a strong performance in the Southeast Regionals. As for the women, most of the key contributors to the team will remain for next season, which bodes well for Jermyn.
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